


Causality - Book 1 : Splashdown

by BlueZeroZeroOne



Series: ST VOY : Causality [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Arachnophobia warning, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Full Narrative, Gen, Mind Control, No Sexual Content, No Slash, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 77,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24571807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueZeroZeroOne/pseuds/BlueZeroZeroOne
Summary: Story Summary - Crashed on an alien planet and facing first contact with the indigenous race, the crew discovers an unexpected connection to Earth, and their own previous travels in time.(Set just before the end of the last season of the VOY TV series, after the episode "Homestead" in which Neelix left the crew.)(Full written drafts of all 40 Chapters are Completed. I will be putting them up one at a time as I make Final Drafts of each, but the whole first books story is basically done.)Next Chapter Estimated Release Date : Delayed. Sorry.
Series: ST VOY : Causality [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776046
Kudos: 13





	1. Prologue - The Debriefing

**Author's Note:**

> More Detailed Overarching Summary (Books 1 - 3) ~ (Skip the next paragraph if you don’t want light to heavy story spoilers.)  
> ****SPOILERS*****  
> Henry Starling, CEO of Chronowerx on Earth in 1996, (VOY EP : The Futures End), had brought about the computer revolution years before it should have happened. Janeway had never thought much about what the timeline would have been like if he had not done so. She and her crew discover the original timeline may still indeed exist, as well as a threat from that timeline that no one expected.
> 
> Characters: All of the crew you know and love, and even some returning characters from the TV series, such as...  
> *Rain Robinson from the VOY episode "The Futures End".  
> *Admiral Paris from Season 7 of VOY  
> *Gariff Luclsy from DS9 Episode "Trials and Tribble-ations"  
> *And introducing many new original characters ~ Including Christopher Moss, this "episodes" main antagonist is actually directly related to a character from ST: VOY episode "11:59", so he's not just thrown into the story for no reason as it may seem at first.
> 
> *END OF SPOILERS* -------------------------------------------------------------------  
> I have tried to make this story as accurate (timeline and canon-wise) as possible, using all the references at my disposal. I have been writing this story since 2003 and have even re-written major parts over the years. The following is my final draft as I release it over time as I put my final stamp on each chapter. I have posted this entire novel before (all 40 chapters) on Fanfiction . net in the past, but that version is very old and doesn’t have the major changes I have made, so if you already read it there, give it a go again and you will find many many many improvements. Enjoy!
> 
> (I do not own the rights to Star Trek, or its characters. This is a non-commercial fan written story.)

-Book Cover-

| |

_Book Cover spliced together by me, however the images used in the splice are not my creation._

* * *

Admiral Kathryn Janeway sighed to herself as she sat alone at the end of the table in the dimly lit conference room. It had been eerily quiet for almost an hour while she waited for Admiral Paris and the Starfleet committee to arrive. 

Three years ago she had been in this exact room upon _Voyagers_ return to the Alpha Quadrant. At that time she and her crew had been hastily debriefed, as dictated by events during that time which involved an immediate threat on Earth by the Borg. She had known then that they would call her back someday to review the logs from their seven year journey in much greater detail.

The door to the room opened with a soft hiss that drew her attention. From it emerged Admiral Paris who was looking down at a PADD in his hand.

She quickly stood to her feet to greet him, all the while straightening her dress uniform's vest by tugging on it firmly. As Paris came to a halt a few paces into the room, she could see that he was followed by two others, a man and a woman. Both appeared at first to be civilians, however they were dressed in black-gray outfits which she immediately recognized as uniforms for Temporal Investigations.

Janeway quickly tried to recall all of the times the crew of the _Voyager_ had found themselves dealing with time travel and altered time lines. Frankly, more instances came to mind than she would have liked to admit.

"Katherine, May I introduce Gariff Lucsly and Rita Hollis from Temporal Investigations. They will be joining us for the debriefing. Please, be seated and we will begin." Admiral Paris said and they all sat down. She couldn’t help but notice that they had all sat at the far end of the table, leaving her alone at the other.

Admiral Paris referenced his PADD again and then looked back up at her as he smiled.

"As you already know Katherine, we’ve been reviewing the large bulk of logs from your seven years in the Delta Quadrant with a more in depth analysis." He said. "And some of the things in that database are really quite amazing."

Janeway looked down at her hands which were clasped on the table in front of her. It was true, they had been through a lot. Ranging from wild to weird, the log entries on _Voyager_ would be a true treasure trove to both explorers and scientists alike. But she knew that reading logs were one thing, and seeing them with their own eyes had been another.

"Admiral Janeway, as I'm sure you are aware, you broke many of Starfleets protocols on many occasions. Sometimes in more serious cases than others." Lucsly said abruptly, his attitude towards Janeway showing fully. He was glaring at her angrily, yet somehow still professionally. Janeway resigned herself to the fact that this debriefing would be a long one.

Admiral Paris looked slightly to his right at Lucsly, without actually making eye contact. It was clear he wasn't fond of Lucsly either. "Gariff, Starfleet understands the situation that the _Voyager_ had been in. And as you very well know, we already dropped all the charges that could have been placed on Admiral Janeway and her crew. But, that being said, there are indeed some things for which we must seek clarification."

Lucsly merely blinked and continued to glare at Janeway.

"Why don't we begin again," Rita Hollis chimed in softly, clearly the good cop to Lucslys bad, "Admiral Janeway, we have asked you here today because something rather unexpected has happened."

"We have received a direct communication from a race you seem to have encountered on your journey home." Admiral Paris said.

"I would have been surprised if none of the races we had encountered were to attempt to contact us," Janeway said drawing forward slightly. She and her crew had encountered many races who might have eventually had an interest in contacting the Federation for one reason or another, but she wondered why Hollis had said it was unexpected. Perhaps it had to do with who had contacted them, and not that someone had in general.

"We also expected to receive communication from some of the races you encountered, that is true. However, It is the fact that the senders name and the race she is from do not appear in your logs in any way that is the surprise to us. The message is from an individual named Sil, a Frain woman." Lucsly said, again in an abrupt and angry tone.

Janeway blinked and sat back in recollection. She indeed knew of whom they were speaking.

"Yes, I know who that is, but as far as I was aware she and her people were well inside the Delta Quadrant with no real means of sending such a long range communique." she explained.

"How the message was sent is of little import here. The real issue is that your logs include no information at all of this woman or even of the Frain peoples existance. A recursive review of your logs from stardate 54875.87 has been done and all that you reported happened in the Frain system was that your crew took shore leave on an uninhabited planet for a short time. In fact, there was little more to the log entry beyond the name of the Frain system and its planets, which is how we even knew were to look." Hollis said calmly.

Janeway understood their question. She had left out all the important details of the entire happenstance. Ironically, it had been for the timelines protection that she had left the whole thing out of her logs. It now seemed that protecting the timeline had left her seemingly looking as if she had tried to hide that she had altered it.

"What does the message say?" she asked seeking more information on why Sil had broken the discretion they had agreed upon.

Admiral Paris activated a console embedded in the table and from speakers around the room she heard the garbled message.

 _“_ _Federation of Planets-_ _*hiss*_ _... name is Sil and I-*_ _buzz*_ _….Frain from the planet Fra-*_ _static_ _*… Delta Quadrant. I am attempting to reach Captain Kathryn-*_ _squeel_ _*... Starship_ _Voyager_ _. -….*_ _static_ _* Christopher Moss-*_ _hum_ _*… your help._ " said the voice which Janeway knew was Sil’s. The message then began to repeat, but Admiral Paris cut it off before it could continue for too long.

"Have you responded to the message?" Janeway asked, her curiosity growing. What had caused the Frain woman to send a message halfway across the galaxy?

"Without knowing the details of who this woman is, we felt that we would hold off responding until we had spoken with you." Hollis said. “And of course then there is this Christopher Moss she speaks of. No one with such a name is listed as part of _Voyagers_ Crew or on any passenger manifest you kept track of over the course of your journey. So how this human got so far out into the galaxy is of interest to us more than anything else.”

Janeway squinted in thought. Nothing in Sil’s message gave away Christopher's origins, yet somehow they had known to include Temporal Investigations in the debriefing. They even knew he was a human. Clearly there was something more to this that they weren’t telling her.

"Shall I start from the beginning?" She asked sitting up as straight as she could. She inwardly wished Chakotay was here, but he was seeing to his duties as the new Captain of _Voyager_.

"Yes, please do." said Admiral Paris as he activated the computer to record what she was about to say. "From the very beginning."

So, she began, from the very beginning.

* * *

_Reference Images for this chapter._

Admiral Paris, Garrif Lucsly

_NOTE : While the story above is written by me, these images are not of my own creation._


	2. The End Of One Day

* * *

_Cal Tech, Pasadena California, June 13, 2007_

Christopher Moss smiled to himself as he walked.

Above all, his final year in college had been the hardest and most enjoyable at the same time. But now that it was over it was finally time to move on to bigger and better things.

Other students shuffled past him on either side, going in both directions. He knew many of them, some personally and others just in passing, but all in all, today of all days, everyone had their own destinies on their minds.

He slowed his pace and maneuvered himself through the crowd towards the right side of the hall. He knew that he was going to be a bit late if he wasn’t careful.

He swung his book bag off his shoulder and pulled out an application letter with the words Millennium Gate Corps of Scientists on the top. He had completed filling it out that morning, and all he needed now was a recommendation signature from one of his professors.

Clipped to the top of the application, was a newspaper clipping of a story on the Millennium Gate he had been saving for six years. He removed the clipping and looked at it while he walked. This was his future, or at least, what he hoped it would be.

The Millennium Gate was a prototype self-sustained habitat that was the first step to the colonization of other planets. Chris thought back to the year the Gate had started being built in Indiana. He had watched coverage on the news about how the project had almost been moved to a different site because a single shop owner hadn't wanted to sell his store.

His father had received a lot of phone calls from Chris's Uncle who was in charge of the team building the Gate. He could always hear yelling on the other end of the phone, because his Uncle couldn't talk the shop owner into selling, but eventually someone else had coaxed the stubborn owner to sell at the last second of the deadline.

Later that year after hearing about his interest in the project, his Uncle Gerry had promised Chris that if he graduated with at least an Associates in Astrophysics that he would do what he could to get him in on the project too.

Sadly, his Uncle had passed away earlier this year of lung cancer. It had hit Chris hard to lose his favorite uncle and a future prospect at the same time. But now he knew it was up entirely to himself to make his own way onto the project. Hence the application.

Chris turned a corner and approached the astrophysics lecture hall where he saw his favorite professor, Professor Robinson who had taught his astrophysics class. She was slowly walking down the corridor away from the lecture hall carrying two large bags, one in each hand.

She was a younger professor, perhaps in her mid thirties, he didn't really know. It was her her exuberant childlike personality that made him wonder how old she really was. But she was incredibly intelligent and grasped astrophysics in such a way that she clearly had been able to become a college professor at a much younger age than most. From what he understood she had even worked for SETI at one point.

"Would you like a hand with one of those, Professor?" He asked putting the newspaper clipping and application back into his book bag to free up his hands.

"Thanks, Christopher. Here, this is the heavier of the two, do you think you can manage?" she replied gratefully and showed a sudden relief as she placed one of the bags down onto the floor.

"Oh yes, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." he said and began to laugh lightly to himself, as he hoped his statement would end up being true. Standing six feet tall, Christopher wasn't very physically built as he had focused on mental exercises rather than physical ones over the years.

He lifted the bag with his left hand, and in the process almost stumbled, but he caught himself by shifting the weight of the bag to his right foot. He hadn’t considered that the bag would actually be this heavy.

From this angle he could see the bag he that was carrying was full of small telescopes. Earlier that year he had used those same telescopes himself. He had such a love for the subject that he had stayed after class many nights with Professor Robinson and a few other students to map constellations as extra graded activities.

"Thanks again for your help. I don’t think I would have made it all the way to the storage room." She exclaimed with a laugh while lugging her now lighter load down the hall.

"No problem," he said still struggling with his bag, but continued to keep pace beside her. “I was stopping by to see if you could sign a letter of recommendation anyway, so it is the least I could do.”

"Ah, I see. Bribery will get you everywhere." she quipped smiling at him, almost short of breath again. He had gotten to know her fairly well over the year from all the time spent looking at the stars, and he knew her sense of humor well.

Suddenly, Chris was bumped into from behind by someone moving quickly past him. Chris was able to regain his balance quickly by placing the bag down. He looked over toward the back of the person who had just bumped him as they continued to walk hurriedly down the hall away from them. He couldn't make out any details of who the person was, so he thought he would just let it go.

"That was rude." Ms Robinson said to Chris. “Wonder where they are going in such a hurry.”

“Who knows.” Chris said as he again picked up his bag and took a step. As he did, his foot came to rest on something solid that made a strange chirping noise. He stopped again and bent over to pick the object up.

“What’s that, did you drop something?” Professor Robinson asked him as he stood up holding the object between his fingers.

It seemed to be a pin of some kind, but he didn't recognize its shape. It looked like some sort of silver arrowhead with a golden rectangle behind it.

"It's not mine. Maybe it's theirs." He said motioning after the person who had bumped him but now the hall was completely empty.

Professor Robinson started to say something, but when she saw the pin she stopped mid-word and had a puzzled look on her face.

“Is something wrong?” He asked holding the pin where she could see it, “Does this look familiar to you?”

She stared at it for a moment, seeming lost in a thought. After a quick moment she looked down the hall in the direction of the person who had quickly passed, bit her lip and said, “Saturn.”

"Saturn?” He asked her. “What-”

Chris was cut off by the strange chirping sound from the pin again. He looked down at it and turned it over a few times in his hand. Then the hairs on his arm and neck started standing straight up on their ends and the feeling of a static charge flowed over him. It was like the feeling that rubbing bare socks on the carpet would produce, but he hadn't done any such thing.

He looked back up and Professor Robinson had a startled look on her face. She reached out for him as everything around him began to shimmer as if he was inside of a blue sandstorm. Reflexively he closed his eyes with hope that if he ignored what he was seeing it would go away. But it didn't.

He opened his eyes and was about to yell to the Professor for help, but he realized, he was no longer in the hall standing in front of her.

He felt disoriented for a second, and realized he was now laying flat on his back looking up at a bright light on the ceiling.

"That’s not... Sedate him, quickly." A voice said from beside him somewhere. Something cold touched his neck, there was a hissing sound, and it was then gone again.

Suddenly, he felt sleep nagging at him, and he couldn't help but to heed its call.

Most people dream of things while asleep, but at this moment Chris felt as if he was still awake. Yet somehow he knew for a fact he was asleep. All he could do was think, think about what was happening, and why. None of the questions he asked himself could be answered, not by him at least.

He thought about his whole life, every moment and every second he spent alive. Even things he had forgotten once were remembered again. After a long while, it seemed like he had thought about everything at least a thousand times and more. He began to realize that this dreamless sleep had already lasted a very long time.

When would it end?

* * *

_Reference Images for this Chapter_

Millennium Gate, Rain Robinson, Gerry Moss (Christopher's Uncle)

_NOTE : While the story above is written by me, these images are not of my own creation._


	3. A Farewell

* * *

_Delta Quadrant, Stardate_ _54875_ _.87_

Outside the large windows of the ready room, the stars flowed by and appeared as blurs of light as the Starship Voyager traveled at warp four. The warp nacelles were in their up and active position which allowed for high levels of warp speed to be achieved without the danger of damaging sub-space. They would be lowered again when the ship came out of warp and again traveled at impulse speeds.

Captain Janeway leaned back in her chair and looked down at the PADD that Lieutenant Commander Tuvok had just handed her. It was his daily security report and he now stood stoically in front of her desk awaiting any comments she may have.

She read over the very short list. In fact, only two infractions were listed. A few security officers had been late for their duty shifts that past evening because an 'old movie', courtesy of Lieutenant Tom Paris, hadn't ended on time. Secondly, there had been a small argument in the mess hall this morning because no one could agree on how to make one of Neelix's 'better' recipes correctly.

"It Seems like Neelix has left us with a cook position to fill, You should ask around the crew to see if anyone is interested in the job." Janeway suggested. She then thought to herself about Neelix leaving as she handed the report back to her security officer.

This particular security report reminded her that Neelix had turned her personal dining room into the kitchen without her permission, when they had been having problems with their power reserves being low. He had at the time hoped that cooking food they gathered on planets rather than replicating it would save power, which it had.

She had thought about converting the kitchen back to her dining room once more now that he was gone, but quickly dismissed the idea. It was entirely possible they may have power problems again in the future, and she mostly ate her meals in her ready room or quarters now anyway.

"I am sure I have more important duties to tend to, Captain. Perhaps that would be a job better suited for one of the ensigns," Tuvok replied looking almost uncomfortable about the captains suggestion. Although she knew that Vulcans didn't show their emotion outwardly, she could swear she saw a definite change in his expression.

"You may be right. I guess I can get Harry to do it." Janeway said smiling and sitting upright to press a button on her computer.

After so many years in the Delta Quadrant she had begun to leave out rank when talking to her bridge crew, for in normality, as captain, she should have said Ensign Kim instead of just Harry, but she had become used to using her crews first names as they were easier to recall in an emergency, which seemed to happen a lot.

"That completes my report, Captain. Will there be anything else?" Tuvok asked after he glanced at the PADD in his hand for a moment, probably deciding if he had forgotten anything, which Vulcans usually didn't.

"No, your dismissed." She said looking down to her computer screen which had the word ‘Paused’ written across its top.

After the door to her ready room hissed shut, she began to review the text displayed on her computer screen. It was her report to StarFleet command about Neelix and his time on board.

She had begun to compose the report before Tuvok had arrived, although she now found herself struggling on how to end it.

"Computer, Resume Recording.” She said and continued her dictation,“In Conclusion, It is in my opinion that without the help of Ambassador Neelix at the beginning, or at any other time of our journey thus far, we the crew of Voyager would have not made it as far as we have."

"He will be missed by us all, and although he is not an official member of Starfleet, I am giving him a commendation of excellence in service to this crew. I will present him with this in the next communique we have with him."

She read over what she had just said for a few moments, and decided it was just the way she wanted it to be. She then saved the report and prepared it to be sent to Starfleet during the next communications burst to Earth.

After the computer had finished saving, she stood out of her chair and walked around her desk towards her personal replicator.

"Coffee, black," she requested, and a shimmer of light swirled in the replicator, leaving a mug of coffee behind. Taking the mug from the slot, she turned and stared out at the warp stars passing by her window.

They had been alone in this Quadrant for a long time, and she had gotten used to not having any other starfleet vessels to help with any problems they ran into out here, but she missed a lot about Earth.

She thought back to the grassy fields of her childhood home in Indiana where she used to sit in the branches of her favorite tree and daydream of winning the annual tennis tournament. This of course, had been before her favorite tree had been struck by lightning.

Lost in her memories she began to take a sip from the mug, but as soon as the warm pleasantness of the coffee hit her lips the bulkhead at her feet vibrated slightly.

Janeway lowered the mug and looked around her ready room for some sense of disturbance. Nothing seemed amiss until she again looked out the window of her ready room and saw that the warp stars were no longer moving.

These particles pushed aside by Voyagers deflector and distorted visually by its warp field would normally pass by the ships windows almost looking like stars as they did. But there they were, still stretched and distorted albeit frozen in place.

After a few seconds Chakotay's voice registered over the ship wide comm, "Red Alert, Captain Janeway to the bridge."

Almost immediately she was through the door that lead to the bridge, the mug of coffee still in her hand.

She had exited her ready room many times in the past to come onto the bridge just as an enemy vessel started to attack or other times just as a space anomaly had intersected them.

She could only imagine what it would be this time. Whatever the case she knew her Starfleet training and myriad of experiences here in the Delta Quadrant would help her get them all through it.

"Report." She said as she crossed the bridge to where Chakotay was standing. He turned to face her and frowned, his forehead tattoo moving slightly with his expression.

"I'm afraid we don't know yet. We’ve intersected with some sort of energy field."

"Captain, according to my readings, we are still registering that we are at warp four, but our spacial position isn't changing on any axis." Tom said looking up at her from his station.

"What do your readings tell you Harry?" she asked as she looked to the view screen which was showing nothing but frozen blurs of warp stars and open space ahead.

After a moment she realized he wasn't responding. Janeway looked up over towards the Ops station where Harry Kim was stationed. There was Harry staring at his controls like nothing was happening, not moving at all, not even to breath.

She quickly placed her mug on the railing and moved over towards him. By the time she was up the ramp, Tuvok had moved over to him as well and had activated a tricorder.

"I'm detecting chronitons," he paused, "or at least that's what they appear to be."

"What do you mean appear to be?" asked Chakotay, "Either they are or they aren't."

Janeway knew Tuvok wasn't one to plainly jump to conclusions, in fact she knew he was the one she could trust to make an in depth analysis of any situation before attempting a conclusion.

"They are highly localized, and are also showing movement patterns of... Intelligence." Tuvok said, and raised an eye brow in the well known Vulcan way of showing interest.

"You mean it may actually be a life form of some kind?" Janeway asked as she looked at Harry intently and wondered what she could do to ensure he was alright.

* * *

_Reference Images For This Chapter_

Janeway in her Ready Room, Voyager at Warp (Warp Stars)

_Note : While the above story is written by me, these reference images are not of my creation._


	4. A Single Moment

* * *

Harry had been having a rough morning. First, while he had been distracted by one of Tom's jokes he had accidentally tripped and dropped his breakfast on one of the female ensigns.

He had apologized of course, but shortly after that stressful event, another had happened. This time he had to break up an argument between two engineers who were fighting about how Neelix prepared one of his specialties.

Tuvok had arrived in the mess hall shortly after and said he would be making a report to the captain about the event. Harry mused at that and wondered if he would be listed in the report as one of the agitators, or as the voice of reason he had hoped to be.

Now on the bridge running a scheduled level two computer diagnostic on his Operations station, Harry found some comfort in being on duty with a task to complete.

Also on the Bridge, Chakotay was bringing Tom up to speed about something that had happened while he had been away on a recent shuttle mission. A small civilian vessel had taken damage from an Ion Storm and Voyagers crew had helped repair the tiny two person ship. As a repayment of kindness, the captain of that vessel had given them a navigation chart of the systems along Voyager's immediate course.

The captain of that vessel, a strange fellow named Mink, had said he had always thought someone should create a trade station in the sector ahead. It was a largely traveled sector due to its lack of... well, anything, which made for relatively safe passage.

Across the bridge, the door to the captains ready room opened, bringing Harry back to the present. Tuvok exited the door all the while reading from a PADD he was holding as he walked up to his station at tactical. Tovok looked up to relieve the ensign who had taken his place temporarily and began to work at his station.

Harry again looked down at his console when it chimed that the diagnostic was completed and no errors had been detected. He activated his forward scanner display to double check their current course against the information that had been given to them by Captain Mink.

Everything seemed accurate and was just as the navigational information they were provided with said it would be. It was open space for almost two light years, nothing to worry about for at least a few days.

Something beeped and another console caught his eye, a small indiscreet reading of a chroniton surge. He quickly tried to pinpoint its location.

Strangely and suddenly it felt as if his console had emitted a slight, painless electric charge into his fingers. At that same moment, the console displaying the surge went blank and no longer displayed anything, just the empty space he had seen a moment before.

"Ensign, Are you ok?" He heard the captain ask him.

He looked up to report what he had just monitored on his screen, and realized that Captain Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok were all standing around his station. Tuvok had his tricorder raised and was scanning him.

Harry stepped back and intersected the console behind him. He was startled at the fact everyone had moved toward him in what seemed like an instant. For one thing, the Captain hadn't even been on the bridge a moment before.

Before answering he took a moment to look about himself, puzzled.

"I'm fine, Captain. I'm not really sure what happened, but how did you all move so fast?" He asked totally confused.

"We didn't move fast, you on the other hand stopped moving completely." she replied, her expression a mixture of worry and intrigue.

"Tuvok detected chronitons present in your vicinity. Did you feel anything strange before we all moved? Chakotay asked.

"I did feel a sort of static charge right after I detected a small chroniton surge. It was as if I was close to a conductor of some kind but it only lasted a moment, and then you were all looming over me." he replied and wondered to himself if there had been any permanent damage to his body.

As if she had read his mind, Captain Janeway ordered him to report to sickbay and have the Doctor examine him. Of course he couldn't have been happier to comply with the order, so he acknowledged and headed towards the turbo-lift.

As Harry entered the lift he heard the Captain ask Tuvok if he was detecting any more chronitons, and before the door to the turbo-lift closed he heard Tuvok's reply. "I am reading either the same, or different localized chroniton field directly below us on deck four. It is moving towards..."

The door had closed before Harry could hear the rest, but Harry hoped that whatever this field was, it didn't come near him again. He couldn't stand being near anything that had to do with chronitons which were almost always directly related to time disruption. _The day’s feel long enough already_ , He joked inwardly in hopes to calm himself down.

He waited in silence while the turbo-lift hummed slightly as it moved swiftly through the ship to its destination.

When the doors to the turbo-lift opened Harry found himself suddenly being pushed forward into the corridor.

Quickly trying to right himself he realized that the inertial dampeners were malfunctioning because he was having trouble standing and the ship was rocking back and forth.

Voyager seemed like it was out of control.

* * *

  
  


Janeway climbed off the floor into her chair at the center of the bridge. As soon as she was once again in her seat she looked over her shoulder to Tuvok.

"Report!" she yelled, barely audible over the loud noise of the ship being assaulted by something unknown.

Tuvok was holding onto his console and had apparently managed to stay standing upright, but he seemed to be having difficultly reading the shaking readouts in front of him.

"We appear to no longer be caught in whatever energy distortion was holding us in place. We've dropped out of warp but breaking thrusters have not fired. The inertial dampeners are at sixty percent. The viewscreen, navigation and sensors are all offline!" Tuvok reported.

Without the need for his report, she could already tell the inertial dampeners were at low working order by the pit she felt in her stomach. They were probably feeling at least three and a half G's.

She knew of course if the dampeners had failed completely they all would have been turned to mush and the ship would have shaken apart.

"Get the breaking thrusters back online, we need to slow down. Tom, as soon as we have them back, full reverse power, we don't want to hit anything out there going this fast!" Janeway shouted rocking in her seat.

"Aye Captain!" Tom replied, clearly understanding her orders, although she was sure he hadn't heard her entirely over all the noise.

Janeway hadn't felt this level of 'turbulence' for a long time. She felt almost as if they were being hit by another Caretaker dislocation wave.

She quickly glanced around the bridge, first at the blank view screen, then over the Chakotay's chair. He wasn't there as he had most likely stayed at Ops to replace Harry. She turned her head and looked to her other side. What she saw there stunned her.

There it was, the mug of coffee still sitting firmly on the railing near her chair where she had placed it. It seemed completely unaffected by all that was happening around it. How could it still be there? She knew well that it should have fallen and broken, or at least spilled onto the floor, but it hadn't.

She began to reach for it, but felt the same static charge in the air around it that Harry had described and she pulled her hand back. As she watched it, the mug suddenly bolted towards the ceiling and shattered, seeming to finally catch up with the rest of the ship.

"Captain, the view screen is back online," Chakotay yelled from, as she had correctly assumed, where he was now at Operations.

She looked past Lieutenant Paris, who was struggling to stay in the seat in front of her at the helm, and what she saw made the pit in her stomach grow ten fold.

A large blue and green mass, a planet, and it filled the entire view screen with no stars to be seen anywhere. This of course meant that they were close. Very close.

It made sense now. The turbulence they were feeling was definitely that of atmospheric entry at a very extreme speed.

"Short range sensors have come back online, Captain. We've entered the planets atmosphere!" Tuvok yelled from his station confirming her worst fears, "It's Class-M. Unable to determine life sign readings!"

"Computer, Blue Alert!" Janeway ordered knowing they weren't going to be able to pull up in time to leave the atmosphere. The crimson red lights on the bridge changed to a much duller blue, which signified to the crew to prepare for atmospheric entry and possibly landing.

"The breaking thrusters are back online, Captain!" Lieutenant Torres's voice chimed over the comm, and Janeway watched as Tom hit a few controls on the panel in front of him.

The ship rocked again suddenly, and began to steady, but remained mildly shaking with the inertial dampeners in their current state.

"We've slowed, Captain, but we're still going to hit pretty hard. Current course sets us impacting in water!" Tom shouted over his shoulder as the image on the view screen changed from clouds, to a blue ocean.

"Impact in twenty-six seconds." Tuvok said as he kept his posture the best he could under these conditions.

"Captain I believe I can keep damage to a minimum if we approach the water with the bow elevated at a 15 degree angle!" Tom exclaimed rotating his chair to face her as he looked for her approval.

He was suggesting they skip Voyager like a stone and hope they come to stop before skipping into anything solid. But it was their best chance. After she nodded in agreement, he turned and started to bring up the nose of the star ship.

"Impact in eleven seconds." Janeway heard Tuvok say from over her shoulder. He seemed to have worry in his voice, but she knew she must have been mistaken.

"All hands, brace for impact!" She said, her voice transmitting to the rest of the ship. After she had broadcast, behind her Tuvok continued with his countdown.

"Impact in four...three...two...one..."

* * *

_Reference Images For This Chapter_

Harry Kim Frozen At Operations, Janeway reacts to seeing her mug.

_Note : Unlike the story above which was written by me, these images are not of my own creation.  
They are simply here to help paint images in ones mind._


	5. Dangerous Locations

* * *

Janeway was again lying on the floor next to her chair, she climbed to her feet and pushed an always stubborn lock of hair out of her eyes. Steam was pouring from a conduit near the science station on her left and ensign Wildman was already working to lock it down.

"Status," She said grimly looking over he shoulder to Tuvok, who was also regaining his standing posture.

“Minor damage on deck fifteen, a few hull breaches where water is entering the ship. The crew on that deck is being evacuated. Otherwise I am seeing no other hull damage. It seems Mr. Paris was successful at his somewhat _unorthodox_ landing."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Tom Paris replied from his station, where his console flickered wildly from damage to the power relays.

"Sensors are again offline, Captain." Tuvok continued his report. “Relays are burning out all over the ship due to the flooding on deck fifteen."

As if to make the point, the console behind Tuvok sparked suddenly and went offline. Tuvok looked behind him at the smoking panel and then looked back at Janeway nodding to her that he was unharmed.

"Tuvok, we need those sensors back online as soon as possible." Janeway ordered as she walked towards her ready room, "Chakotay your with me."

Chakotay followed her into her ready room and took to standing by her desk, while Janeway herself walked over to her window and looked out at her new view.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the blue sky of what she guessed was a Class-M planet reminded her of the one back on Earth. Before her was an ocean as far as she could see, and from where she was now standing all that was visible of the Voyager above the water was the top six decks of it's elongated saucer section.

The deflector dish and the shuttle bay however were fully submerged, as Voyager was now resting at a slight angle with the front of the ship higher than the back.

"It seems Voyager wanted to take a swim." Chakotay said after a moment. Janeway turned to face him with a slight smile on her face.

"It seems like it, although I wouldn't have minded a little warning first. Any speculation on what the energy distortion we collided with was?" She asked as she walked over towards her desk where she began to straighten some of the things that had fallen over during the bumpy ride.

"We hadn’t detected the distortion until we collided with it, so it either appeared out of nowhere, directly in our path, or it was always there but undetectable. Either way, there were no systems or planets near or on our current course and now suddenly here this one is." He said and then looked out the window before continuing. "I'm guessing the energy distortion was some sort of chroniton storm. Perhaps a natural phenomenon? Until we get sensors back online there is no way to know."

Janeway nodded in agreement after she put her favorite cup back on her desk.

"I have to say, the thought of the presence of intelligence in the chronitons themselves really piques my curiosity." She said.

"Perhaps we stumbled onto a life form who lives in time particles itself, and the field we passed through is its home." he said bending over to help her pick up.

"Maybe, but in any case, I don't think we should try to take off again until we find out if those chroniton lifeforms are still on board or not, we wouldn't want this all to happen again."

 _"Doctor to the Captain."_ The Doctors voice said over the comm.

"Go ahead Doctor." Janeway replied and leaned against her desk.

"Ensign Kim has arrived and after initial scans I am detecting an unknown substance on his clothing. The closest match in the computer seems to be that of chroniton particles, but it is unheard of in liquid form." The Doctor said in a very calm and straightforward tone.

"Do a complete analysis of the substance and report in to me afterwards." Janeway replied and then shook her head, "Janeway out."

"Chronitons in liquid form, I have to agree with the doctor, that is unheard of." Chakotay said as he rubbed the back of his head thinking.

_"Tuvok to Captain Janeway."_

"Go Ahead" she replied and smiled at Chakotay, one report after another, this was turning out to be a busy day.

"We have been able to restore sensors. I have detected multiple vessels on the ocean surface and in the air heading in our direction, They will arrive in 3 minutes." Tuvok said over the comm.

After giving each other a quick glance, both Janeway and Chakotay quickly rushed out of the ready room and onto the bridge.

"What kind of technology do they have, are they a Pre-warp society?" Janeway asked as she approached her chair and looked to the view screen. Chakotay was already at Harry Kim’s post at operations again, and had started to read the information being displayed.

"I would say they are early-warp. I am detecting hundreds of satellites in orbit, a couple of large space stations, and dozens of space faring vessels capable of... I'd say warp one. I am also reading large cities on all of the continents on this side of the planet. Line of sight prevents me from getting readings from the opposite side." Chakotay reported.

Tuvok was the next to speak. "However, Captain, There is a high probability that they have never left their own planetary system before.” The view-screen changed to show a diagram of the system. “The distortion field we passed through is encircling this entire three planet system."

"It looks as though we've been thrown into a first contact situation, although since they are an early warp species we wont have to infringe on the Prime Directive." Chakotay said looking up from his console at the view screen which had changed back to show the approaching craft.

Janeway watched the approaching water vessels and aircraft grow larger as they drew closer. "Have they tried to contact us?"

"We have not received any form of communication that the computer can recognize," Tuvok said and then paused, he looked at the readouts in front of him, "Captain, I believe our outer hull is being scanned."

"Will our shields be operational in water?" Janeway asked facing Tuvok.

"They will work, captain, although the water will reduce their effectiveness to approximately sixty percent that of normal." Tuvok replied pushing a few controls.

"That will have to do, shields up, we can't be sure if they're hostile or not." Janeway said as she took a seat in her command chair.

"I bet they are wondering the same thing about us." Tom said as he watched the shields flicker into place on the view screen. He pointed, "Look there, the shields are visible right where they are coming in contact with the water."

"That effect is being caused by the energy particles in the water colliding with the shields, its making them visible, but as I said before this is also reducing shield efficiency." Tuvok said as his hands glided across his console doing many different tasks at once.

Janeway looked down at her command chairs fold up computer, which was displaying short range sensor scans. They were being surrounded on all sides by the alien sea craft. It appeared that they had come to rest about a kilometer offshore just outside the mouth of a bay. Along the shoreline to Voyagers starboard side was a large city, large enough to house millions of the unknown race. None of it had been visible from her ready room window.

"I guess it's a good thing that they are visible, it will keep them from crashing their crafts into our shields." Chakotay said as he looked up at the glowing shield effect Tom and Tuvok were talking about.

"The nearest water vessel is within twenty meters of our shields, and they are slowing, it appears you are right Commander. Although we may have a similar problem. An aircraft is directly on course for our shields. Should we try hailing them captain," Tuvok asked.

"No, we don't want to jump right into diplomacy until we figure out who we are dealing with. Tuvok, is there any way to light up the rest of the shields and make them visible?" Janeway asked as she again stood with baited breath and watched the approaching aircraft grow closer.

"I believe I can adjust the shield frequencies and create that effect, captain." Tuvok replied and then started to work quickly, and after a few moments he said. "Our shields will now remain visible," on the view screen, the shields turned into a light blue shimmer and remained slightly visible.

"The aircraft is turning to avoid the shields." Chakotay said with relief in his voice.

* * *


	6. A Wonder From The Sky

* * *

"Leader, the unknown craft has put up some sort of energy barrier which is preventing our scans. We have determined it would take tremendous amounts of power to generate such a field." said Chief of Defense Tok.

"Is the barrier affecting our water table in any way that you can determine?" Wro, the leader of the people of Fra, asked from the opposite end of the table.

Wro had been in a meeting with his Chief of Council when he was told about the alien craft that had plummeted into the ocean off the coast of the capitol city. He had then called the immediate meeting of all the members of the Protectorate. This command organization consisted of many different scientific, military and civic fields. The meeting in question had just begun a few moments before.

"From what we can tell from our primary surveys, it appears to have no effect on the water itself, and none of the sea life in the immediate area seem affected." Ret, the Head of Sciences said as he read from his hand held computer.

"Can you determine the origin of the craft?" Wro asked turning his chair to his left, where a female of the species sat, she also read from a small portable computer.

"I believe it to be from beyond the field sir, although it appeared almost instantly above our atmosphere." replied Sil, the head of Astero Sciences. Her department was in charge of the study of all things beyond the atmosphere of the planet.

She had been the first to report the appearance of the craft a couple of minutes before it had actually come to a halt in the bay. One of her departments satellites had picked up a fluctuation in the field and she had immediately informed her superior, Ret. By the time the vessel had actually splashed down, Ret had already informed Leader Wro. All in all they had been very efficient and he had to commend the speed they had reacted.

"Explain what you mean by, appeared." Wro queried.

"It was either traveling faster than our satellites could detect, or it was using some sort of jamming or stealth technology.” she added to fill his query.

Chief of Defense Tok chimed in next, addressing Ret. “Have you determined the threat or technological level of the vessel?”

Ret turned to look at Sil offering that she would know better, so she answered the question, “It appears to be constructed of a more advanced technology than our own, apparent by the fact our scanners can not penetrate the barrier the craft has erected. However, before the barrier had been put in place we were able to scan the craft temporarily and we detected many alloys in the surface of the craft that are not present on our elemental table. I calculated at least twelve of these such elements. That means these elements did not originate from anywhere within the field, so therefore, neither did the craft.”

Wro turned to the Kai, Chief of Civil Discourse who sat on his left. “Broadcast to the populace that no attempts should be made by anyone to approach the craft without first being directed to do so. Order all civilians and non-essential government personnel to remain indoors until further notice.”

“Leader, we have received word from all stations and cities, there are no other signs of any other unknown vessels as of yet.” Tok spoke up. “That doesn’t mean however that it is alone, as it could simply be an advanced scout. I suggest we mobilize and recall the full force of our military into active duty.”

“I think it’s a bit early for that Tok, but at the very least I’ll allow you to mobilize the capital guard to maintain order.” Wro said in response. Tok seemed sated, but Wro knew it was not what Tok had wanted to hear. He turned now to Ret. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“Yes, we have been attempting to decipher the writing that is along the surface of the vessels top section.” Ret said cuing up an image of the writing. “as you can see, it is definitely of unknown origin, as it matches none in our historical record.”

"So it is definitely of alien origin.” Wro said as he stood and nodded his head to each of his staff and told them all to continue their analysis. He then walked out the door to his office across the hall. The window behind his ornate desk overlooked the bay. In the distance he could see the shimmer of the crafts barrier reflecting in the sunlight. The craft had come to a halt so close to their government center that he resigned himself to the fact that it was unlikely a coincidence.

"Please gods, don't let them be hostile." he said to himself.

\-------------

Now outside the conference hall, Sil had taken to sitting on a bench and had just begun looking over a report that had been handed to her by her assistant.

The craft had been in the water nearly an hour now, and there had been no attempts of communication from it, or at least none as they could tell. Leader Wro had decided not to try and contact the craft just yet, for the crafts purpose was unknown, and they weren't sure if anyone on the craft would even understand their language.

At twenty solar cycles Sil had been the youngest scientist to ever lead the Astero Sciences field. Her hopes were to one day prove that alien life existed, and today, that fact had been made apparent, not by her but the aliens themselves.

Although they had still to determine if the craft was a manned or an unmanned vessel, she knew that somewhere an alien being had been, or was still, in control of this craft and it excited her greatly.

Prior to this day, the only signs of extra-frainial life they had discovered was a strange device from an unknown source. The device, crafted with an unknown metallic material had been discovered by the military almost ten solar cycles ago. They had claimed it had been unearthed inside one of their weapons testing zones.

She hadn't fully believed their story as it was told, but she had no real way to disprove it as the military had denied them access to the area it had been found.

"I believe it may be of the same origin of the device the military found." Head of Sciences Ret, Sil's senior in command said as he walked up to her with his portable computer in hand.

She looked up at him and smiled at the fact he had thought the same thing she had. He was a competent Head of Sciences and she was glad to work beneath his lead. Five other science departments reported to Ret besides hers; Medical Sciences, Military Sciences, Civic Betterment Sciences, Computational Sciences and Mechanical Sciences. The bulk of all reports from these six fields passed to him and he would pass them on to Leader Wro as needed.

"I would have to agree, perhaps they have come to make contact in order to retrieve the device from us?" Sil responded.

"I would have to say that isn't the case here. From its angle of decent and how hard it impacted the water, it does seem that this craft crashed accidentally, not landed purposely." Ret said as he sat down on the bench beside Sil.

"I suppose you are right, although that would mean that it was an accident that they came here at all. Do you suppose they don't want to meet with us, and that's the purpose of their energy barrier?" Sil asked looking beside her at Ret, who was reading from yet another report.

"I hope not, I am looking forward to the possibility of communication with them. The thought of how different they may be, or even possibilities of how similar they are to us has my mind racing. Furthermore, if their technology allows for them to pass through the Progenitor Field unharmed, then any technology they could give us would probably allow us to leave the Field as well and travel to wherever they came from." Ret said smiling, his dark purple eyes stared at a nearby wall as he seemed to become lost in thought. “If they are willing to share it with us, that is.”

Sil also began to imagine the many possibilities. Was the aliens technology so advanced that they could travel faster than their own ships could and could they create a barrier like the one that was around their vessel anywhere they wished? The thought of if the aliens were hostile quietly sneaked into her mind. Had they come here wanting to destroy or conquer the Frain?

She quickly shook her head as to not think about that horrible possibility. She began to read the report in front of her again in hopes to distract from that particular line of thinking.

Chief of Defense Tok walked by in front of the two scientists and stopped in the middle of the hall where he continued to talk into his portable communicator, pausing occasionally to listen to responses on the other end.

"I don't care if you have to call the entire crew of the submersible into duty, I know... have you been watching the information broadcast...Yes...it _IS_ an alien craft, and no its not another hoax. I want that submersible ready and I want to know if that barrier is only on the surface or if it goes to the ocean floor...ok, get right on it..." Tok said finishing his conversation and closed his communicator, he then realized Sil was listening in.

"Did you find out anything else about the craft, Head of Astero Sciences Sil? Have you determined if they have any noticeable weapon systems?" he asked her with a stern look in his gray eyes.

Sil had never liked Tok. They had conversed a few times in the past in regards to the possibility of life beyond the Progenitor Field and it never went well. He had always been adamant that if they ever actually encountered aliens, they would be hostile. There was no part of him that believed in the possibility that any alien race may be peaceful. He had tried to convince her by reminding her that their own history was full of conquerors and wars over land and resources. It made sense to him that any technological species would need to find more resources to keep that technology growing and expanding, regardless of the resources current owner.

And now, when aliens had finally come, she knew Tok would be a hindrance to all of those who were hoping to make contact peacefully. She knew that the best she could do now was to cater to his ego, without feeding his paranoia.

"As you were saying to whomever you were just conversing, the alien vessel is protected by a barrier which prevents our scans. And as you know, more than half of the craft is under water, so if the barrier doesn’t extend underwater as well then indeed that would be a fortuitous situation. Astero Science scanners were never designed to penetrate water so that sets my department at a disadvantage. But, you seem to have come up with an ingenious way around that. If you allow one of my science teams on board that submersible, we might be able to take more accurate readings." Sil said and blinked twice to show her eagerness.

"I don't think so, you science types always make trouble." Tok said and smiled. He turned and walked away without the courtesy of any kind of farewell.

Sil frowned, purely disappointed that he had said no to her request. Tok held a higher seat in the hierarchy than she or even Ret did, so she had no place to ask the Leader permission directly.

Beside her Ret watched as Tok walked away, and then looked back to Sil and shook his head frowning.

“He’s so stubborn, but it was worth a try.” Sil conceded.

* * *


	7. 14 of 18

* * *

Aboard Voyager repairs were coming along, and the engineering staff was busy at work trying to repair the damaged relays all over the ship. The shock to the ships systems caused either by the energy field around the system they now found themselves in or the impact with the water, or both, had simply been too much for the relays to handle. Most relays had fused together, and others simply had overloaded and exploded outright.

Seven had been running a detailed scan of the field in question when the Astrometrics sensors had gone down, followed shortly after by the entirety of power on deck eight.

Seven tapped her comm-badge and requested Torres in Engineering.

“Yes, what is it Seven?” Be’lanna responded sounding exasperated.

"Astrometrics is without power. I require assistance in repairing the burnt relays on this deck." Seven said sternly and then crossed her hands behind her back. She could fix them herself without much trouble, if not for the sheer number of relays that would have to be repaired. It would be more efficient to ask for assistance from engineering.

"I'll be glad to send someone and help you, after we buffer the system so they don't burn out again once they are fixed." Torres replied.

“Acknowledged.” Seven said closing communications. She knew Torres wouldn't keep her waiting long as she was an efficient engineer. She had even grown to admire the willpower Torres had, especially now while carrying child.

Seven looked about the lab in an attempt to decide what to do next and focused on the fact that the emergency lighting was bathing the room in a dull red. She decided that she may as well begin work on restoring the decks lighting systems, as it would make it easier to work. It was true that her optical implant helped her see while in near darkness, but she knew it would be more efficient to bring the deck to optimal lighting. She exited Astrometrics and turned left towards the Cargo Bay where she would find access to the jefferies tubes.

Down the corridor from her, one of the computer panels that dotted the wall beeped, became lit and then unlit quickly afterwards. Then a second later the one next to it did the same. She stopped in her tracks and watched as the panels along the wall lit and unlit one by one, closer and closer to her. When the panel directly beside her lit and remained that way she stepped forward and touched it curiously.

There was no power on the deck, so the fact this panel was working at all made little sense. She pressed a few controls to check it’s functionality. It seemed to be working as normal. She could access files and check the ships status.

There was a tiny spark of energy where her fingertips met the panel, and she reflexively pulled her hand back and looked at it. The panel in front of her had again gone dark. _Curious_ , she thought.

Suddenly, she was consumed with thoughts of being trapped, and panic struck her.

She gasped audibly and reached for the wall of the corridor, but became overwhelmed and fell to her knees. Crawling, she moved herself towards the middle of the corridor hoping to quell the feelings of being trapped, but to no avail. Through the pounding of her own heart she could hear footsteps behind her.

She looked up and was about to ask whomever it was for help, but quickly saw that she was looking up at herself. This other Seven was staring at the panel along the wall that she herself had just been and seem to pay no mind to her writhing counterpart on the floor.

Seven reached up and tried to grasp at her doppelgangers arm to get her attention, but before she could reach her, the same shock that had struck her moments before did so to this other Seven as well.

In that moment, the Seven who had walked up behind her faded into nothing. And suddenly she was alone again, the feeling of panic gone.

After another few seconds she slowly got to her knees and looked around intently. It seemed no one else was nearby to see her in the state she was in, and for that she was glad. But now, with no one else to corroborate what had just happened, she was left to wonder if she had truly seen what she had thought.

Then there was the thought of being trapped, it had seemed almost like it wasn't her own thought but someone elses. She wondered if her Borg implants had affected her somehow and an errant memory had cropped up. She decided to go to sickbay after she completed her duties and have the doctor give her a cursory checkup. She stood up, regained her composure and then began to walk down the corridor toward the cargo bay.

* * *


	8. Long Lost Secrets

* * *

Sil had gathered all the information she could have, and it wasn't much since the barrier around the craft continued to deflect all of their attempts to scan within it.  
She was now in her quarters outside the main government facility where after a quick shower she had taken to watching the hourly information broadcast.

The broadcast, which was now on her wall screen with the sound off, was displaying aerial shots of the alien craft.

She was amazed at its size. How could a ship that size travel so fast? All frain ships capable of traveling faster than light were small two to six occupant vessels.

She took a sip from her glass of _gale_ , a plant based drink her mother used to make her when she was young. It helped her think, and calmed her nerves, which is what she needed right now on both counts. She had been going over the satellite readings of the appearance of the craft and had become frustrated with the contradictions in her data.

She had reviewed the scans of the field that surrounded their system and she had been trying to ascertain how the craft had passed through it unharmed. But it was to no avail as she had found no pertinent data. No object in their history, frain-made or otherwise, had ever touched the field and survived.

Her desk monitor now displayed their planetary system. The two other planets in the system were called Mar, and Kel, and although they were lifeless, frainkind had built large cit sized habitats upon them that were capable of supporting life.

Their home planet was called Fra and it was the furthest of the three planets from their star _Cen_. This of course placed Fra closest to the energy field surrounding the system.

No one on their planet knew what the field was or how it had been created, but according to ancient texts it had appeared almost four thousand years ago. Many believed it to be some sort of protective barrier that their creators had put in place to protect their creation, and others surmised it was a cage to keep them from leaving. So they had begun to call it the Progenitor Field.

When Sil first triangulated that the craft had indeed passed through the field she had wondered if this craft would cause an uproar in the various religious communities as this event would either confirm or destroy each of their beliefs. Of course, for the bulk of those on her planet it would simply give more questions.

Sil turned off the broadcast and put her glass down. It was almost time to meet with the Leader and report what little findings she had made since that mornings emergency briefing. As she was dressing into her work clothes, her wall communicator beeped. She quickly finished putting on her shirt and ran to answer the transmission.

"Ah, good, you are still there." Ret said as his face appeared on the screen.

"Yes, I was about to leave and meet with you to go over some of the data." Sil said as she straitened her long white hair with a comb and sat down.

"Oh, then I'm glad I caught you. I'm afraid the Leader has set this as a Level Alpha meeting and your clearance isn't that high. So you will have to send me your findings and I'll relay them to him." Ret said, clearly disappointed that he had to tell her this.

"Level Alpha?" Sil replied, "But what could possibly be so classified that I can't attend? It's not like I don't know about the craft already, the whole planet does!"

"I'm sorry Sil, I can't discuss why...at least not yet," he said, this time clearly looking upset.

He looked over his shoulder before continuing and then looked back to her to speak again, this time in a hushed tone, "But believe me when I say you will find out soon what this is all about. And you won't be happy. It seems Tok has been hiding something from us, but that's already saying too much. Transmit your findings to my console here at the base. Again, I'm sorry,... Ret ending communications."

Sil had stopped fixing her hair, clearly disappointed with the fact that she wasn't to attend the meeting. And this news of Tok hiding something from them was no shock to her as she knew how he was. But what could it be and how did it pertain to the craft in the bay?

She stood slowly, lost in thought, and went to her desks inlaid personal computer terminal. She keyed up the information she had gathered and sent Ret her findings as he had requested. Then she again sat in front of the wall screen which while off had a slight reflection of her own face on its surface.

How could she find out what Tok had hid from them, she needed to know.

After sitting there for a few moment staring at her own reflection, she looked up at her computer and had an idea of what to do. She quickly stood and took her Beta level security chip out from its slot in her terminal and ran out the door of her quarters.

She had one stop to make.

* * *

  
  


Janeway was lost in thought looking out over the ocean on the main view screen when a chime came from the console in front of Tuvok and shook her back into the moment.

"Captain, I'm detecting a transmission which I believe is directed at us." Tuvok reported while he looked down at his console.

It had been almost four hours and they had not been able to determine anything more about the chroniton energy field that had intersected them and caused them to crash. Nor had anything else happened with the alien vessels that were circling voyager like vultures. They seemed to be keeping their distance, not wanting to provoke whomever was inside voyager.

Janeway had asked for a zoomed in view of the occupants of the vessels, but they were all wearing military helmets and other gear that obstructed voyagers external optics from getting a good look at them. All they could tell is that they were all fairly short in stature, standing at most at 1.2 meters tall. _(4 feet)_

"What is the source of the message?" Janeway asked standing to her feet and facing her tactical officer.

"It is one of the water borne vessels directly outside our shields. The transmission doesn't appear to be a two way communication, but instead a recorded message." the Vulcan reported.

"I guess they aren't sure if there is anyone here to make a response." Chakotay said, still manning ops.

"Put the message on screen." Janeway ordered as she turned to face the view screen. It flickered for a second and then stabilized.

The face that was now on the screen was almost human in appearance, but there were a few differences. Janeway suspected the face was that of a male but couldn't be sure, for all she knew this species had only one gender, or perhaps even fifty.

The pupils in his eyes were purple and his skin was a greyish white with hues of darker grey where the facial bones were more prominent. There was also a tint of blue in the grey and white skin tones, which led her to wonder what color their blood was. The mans hair was a light blue with a few areas of white near the sides.

"Greetings, I am Wro, the appointed leader of the frain. We are unsure if you can understand our language but in hopes that you can we are sending the following message. We the people of the planet Fra and it’s colonies within the Progenitor Field, welcome you here in hopes of peaceful contact.”

Janeway looked up at Chakotay at the mention of the Field, and it’s name.

Wro continued his greeting, “We are a curious people, and we wonder who you are and where you hail from with both bated breath and hopeful wonder. If you are here to collect your lost ship that crashed here so long ago, we will gladly return it to you, and please understand that we did not keep it here by force.”

Tom, sitting at his position at conn looked back to Janeway with a curious expression on his face. Janeway was just as curious about what ship Wro was mentioning so she acknowledged Toms expression and continued to listen to what the Leader was saying.

“We hope the fact it is in our possession does not damage any possibilities of us becoming friends. Towards that goal we are transmitting the specifications of our communication technology in hopes for a direct response, or even live communications contact. We await such a response, May the spirits of the past guide you."

"That is the end of the message captain." Tuvok said when the screen went blank, "As he said, they have sent the specifications for their communications systems and the computer has translated their written language. With this information we can respond to their message, shall I open a channel?"

"No, send this message text only in their language, Thank you for welcoming us to you planet, We will contact you with a live connection shortly." Janeway said, "Don't include any other information... not until we find out what crashed ship he was talking about."

"The message has been sent." Tuvok said.

"Chakotay, scan for any traces of technology that greatly differs from theirs." Janeway said sitting in her chair once again. “If there is another crashed ship here, they may think we are together simply because it is also unfamiliar to them regardless of its origin.”

"A complete detailed scan of this side of the planet will take two hours thirty two minutes." Chakotay said, and then looked up after only a few seconds, "Actually Captain, I have already detected something of interest. It is a small object that contains duranium alloy similar to the makeup we use. It is located in the outskirts of the nearby city, and... is in motion. It appears to be in close proximity of one of the indigenous life forms. Someone seems to be carrying it."

* * *


	9. The Device

* * *

Sil walked quickly across the square towards the military side of the base, under her arm was a bio-hazard container. As she approached the entrance to the military area she held up her Beta clearance tag toward the guard, but he moved to stop her.

"I'm sorry, but this area is off limits to non-military personnel at this time." he said placing his left hand on his holstered energy pistol. She could tell he was uneasy and decided to use that to her advantage.

"I am under orders of Chief of Defense Tok himself to bring this alien device in for decontamination. This container won't protect us from the radiation for very long, so unless you want to get a good dose of it, you'd better stand aside." Sil said with as serious a look on her face as she could muster.

The guard looked uneasy about what she had said and also looked as if he was unsure as what to do. Sil knew he would try to call Tok to confirm the order, so she took the container and held it up in front of her.

"Here, you can take it if you want, although I wouldn't suggest you shake it too much, it may explode. After all, it is from the alien craft and who knows what its purpose may be." Sil said purposely shaking it a bit.

"No, that won't be necessary, go through, and make sure you get that locked away the best you can, I don't want to be responsible for a radiation leak." The guard said waving her through trying to stay away from the container.

Sil walked on and laughed inwardly to herself at the audacity of her ruse. She had actually told the truth about what was in the container as it did indeed contain an alien device, although the part about radiation was a lie. They had determined years ago the device held within the container was a scanning instrument and was quite harmless.

She had made a quick stop to the lab where they kept the device and had used her security clearance to access it. She had told the scientists at the lab that she was transferring the device to a more secure area since the aliens may be coming for it. She was surprised they had let her take it so easily even though she was lead scientist in the Astero Sector.

The device was a marvel to everyone who saw and studied it. They had been able to backwards engineer some of the components and had created their own scanners with the same principles found within. But sadly, without more of the elements found in the device they couldn't produce a scanner that had the same accuracy that this one did.

The language displayed on the device was still baffling to them. Not that they hadn’t been trying for years, yet somehow it still eluded them.

As she reached the nearest set of buildings inside the compound Sil peered around a corner and saw two soldiers conversing in front of a barracks. She figured she couldn't get past them without being seen, so she found her way between two hangers and bypassed the two soldiers completely.

Once on the other side of the barracks, she saw a building that looked conspicuously inconspicuous. There was no one in sight patrolling near it and not a single standing guard was to be seen. Sil knew how brash and arrogant Tok was so she guessed he would never keep anything important inside a building that was guarded. The building had no windows or special markings, no signs indicating what kind of building it was, nothing at all.

When she could tell that the coast was clear, she walked to the only door and went inside.

Before her a staircase descended into the darkness below. She opened the bio hazard container and pulled out a small hand light. She then pulled out the alien scanning device and put it in the pocket of her long science coat.

She quickly stashed the bio hazard container in the darkness of a corner and turned on the hand light. Even with the light it turned out to be difficult to see the bottom of the stairs before her, so without an idea of what lay below she started to descend the staircase.

She pushed further into the darkness for almost a full minute descending many stories worth of distance. When she reached the bottom she found herself facing a solid blast door many lengths wide with a code panel on one side that housed a card swipe.

She pulled out her security clearance card and swiped it, but the panel made a deep failure sound at her and the door didn’t open. _This will require more drastic measures_ , she thought.

She lifted the alien device out of her pocket and aimed it at the panel. She flipped the bottom of the device open to activate it and pressed a key on its surface. It made a few beeps and then displayed the code she would need to open the door.

 _Marvelous device_ she thought. It had scanned the security panel in front of her and then displayed the correct sequence to open the door in a matter of moments. Even without being able to read the language there had been enough trial and error attempts over the years to try out the functions available to them. This had been one of the devices features that had been discovered early on. She had always wondered if Tok had known what it was capable of when he had handed it over to the scientists branch ten solar passes ago.

The large door began to open loudly leaving Sil hoping that no one would hear it. She hesitantly passed underneath the raising foot thick door and entered the room behind it.  
On the other side she scanned her light beam around the large room so she could get a bearing on her surroundings. The walls looked to have _amiana_ _matting_ on them, which was a very coarse material that prevented most kinds of signal or energy waves from penetrating.

The floor at her feet was smooth and reflective and the ceiling was, at her best estimate, eight stories above her.

Even in the darkness, she could make out a large object in the center of the room which took up most of the space available to it. The objects shape was similar to that of the ship in the harbor, with variations here and there. She looked up as she passed underneath its base. In front of her was one of four massive anti-gravity generators which hummed slightly as they held the object aloft above the floor.

There were no determinable markings that stood out which left its surface a dull empty gray. She slowly reached her hand up to touch the object at its lowest point but her hand struck a form of barrier. She pulled her hand back as the barrier made a humming sound and came into focus around the whole of the object and then, just as quickly, faded away.

Sil looked down at her hand. It hadn't hurt, in fact the barrier had seemed more solid than it did energy, but she wasn't about to touch it again.  
She again pulled the alien device from her pocket and held it above her near the barrier, when she did the scanner made a similar beeping like it had before.

She pulled it down again to look at what was now on the display. On its small screen was a diagram of the object above her with an outline around it. It displayed an unreadable series of words and below that a new touch button had appeared.

She squinted at it unsure, and then slowly moved her finger to press the button. The device made a series of beeps and the image of the object slowly lost its outline.

The Barrier above her hummed and shimmered into full view once more, and then vanished yet again.

Sil wondered if it that meant it had been deactivated or if she had just made it become visible for a moment. She glanced down and saw that the object displayed on the device was still missing it’s outline. Slowly she reached up once more and this time made contact with the surface of the object.

It was warm.

She then saw the room around her begin to shimmer.

* * *


	10. Belly of the Beast

* * *

A moment ago Sil had been in the hanger below the object, and now just one moment later she didn't know where she was. She could feel her hand light still firmly in her grip but it seemed to have gone dead. The hanger had been as dark as this place and yet she knew she was now somewhere completely different.

It was the smell, a scent of old stale air filled her nostrils.

She looked around fruitlessly for something to focus on, but there was nothing besides the dim glow in her hand. The source of light was the small screen on the alien scanning device, but it was only providing a dim glow which wasn't enough to make out her surroundings. She didn't want to hazard a try to move from where she was standing with no way of seeing her footing. For all she knew she was now surrounded by deep chasms.

She held the scanner in front of her, screen out, and moved it around to try to illuminate her surroundings more, but it still wasn't enough. Gripping her light beacon firmly in her other hand she decided it wouldn't be of any more use to her, so she bent over and slid it along the floor in a random direction. It made a skidding noise for a few feet giving her the indication that the floor directly before her was at least solid.

Then it hit something metal. A wall, or perhaps another surface like a counter or table. She began to take slow steps forward in the same direction that she had slid the dead hand light.

She could hear her heart beat in her ears, it was pulsing rapidly. If it was one thing she hated the most, it was not knowing where she was.

Eventually, the glow from the scanning device finally reflected on a surface in front of her. She could now make out that a wall was in front of her and when she reached it she put her hand on it.

It was warm, just like the outside of the object had been.

She realized that she indeed must have somehow been moved inside of the object Tok had found. She hadn't been absolutely sure until now that that was what had happened, but it was the only explanation.

"Hello?" She spoke, her voice cracking slightly as she hoped for and dreaded a response at the same time.

A few seconds passed and a small light across the room blinked on, it looked like a console of some kind.

"Language analyzed and translated, Please state request." A female voice said from all around her.

Sil had almost jumped off her feet from surprise, but managed to stay firmly planted on the floor. Request? What kind of request was the voice asking for? She thought for a moment about what to say.

"A light would be nice."she quipped in almost a whisper.

"Normal illumination is not possible in power saving mode, activating emergency lighting," The voice said calmly. And just like the voice promised, dim lighting came on around the room.

Sil took in her surroundings, now that she could see them.

She found that she was standing in a small room roughly the same size of her quarters back at the government housing. The color of the room was a grayish white and looked to be extremely dusty. There were only two prominent objects present, a console protruding from the far wall which had a large blank screen above it, and a large chair in the center of the room which was facing the screen.

From what she could tell, there were no doors or other means of egress in sight. If there was a door it was blended so well with the walls that it was impossible to find with the naked eye.

Sil surmised the voice she was hearing was that of a computer or artificial intelligence, and based on the state of the room she now stood there was a good chance that no one else was around to speak with.

She bent and picked up her hand light which was now laying at her feet. After a try or two to turn it on, she discovered it still didn't work.

"Alien technology analyzed, no harmful uses found, reactivating device functionality." The voice said.

In her hand the light flickered on just as she was looking down into the lamp, temporarily blurring her vision.

"Thanks, I guess, although it doesn't do me a lot of good now." She said purely irritated.

"Your welcome. Inquiry, would you like to cancel power saving mode?" The voice asked, "Ships energy reserves have returned to normal levels since the power saving program was activated.

"Power saving mode?" Sil said out loud to herself and wondered what that entailed. She had no real way to know if restoring power would do something she would regret later or if was it best to leave well enough alone. The computer had said this was a ship, and if this ship was anything like the one in the bay, it’s power capabilities could borderline dangerous if used incorrectly.

"Would you like to cancel power saving mode?" The voice repeated, "Ships energy reserves have returned to normal..."

Sil interrupted, "No, stay at this power mode until further notice."

"Affirmative." The voice replied.

Sil thought this whole situation was turning out to be fairly simple, at least in regards to dealing with this computer. Up until now she had been afraid that whatever beings had created this vessel were hostile, as Tok had feared, but now she dismissed the possibility. The computers voice seemed too cordial to have been created by anyone dangerous. In fact, the lack of any security measures at all seemed strange to even her. She was a stranger to this ship and yet it was taking her orders without question.

She moved to the chair and ran her hand across the material and found it to be very soft but sturdy at the same time. She noticed the chair was a size that could most likely accommodate the females of her species, but the males would have trouble getting comfortable as they were all a fair bit shorter in stature.

"Warning, Proximity alert, life forms detected within twenty meters of the ship." The computer said. "Reactivating shields at highest possible percentile."

Sil made a mental note that the barriers these ships could erect were called shields. On top of that, she was amazed at the efficiency of the computer. It seemed capable of self action based on the situation, even without someone to directly order it. Frain computers were either used only as data caches or as glorified switches and only did as they were told to do directly by the user who was actively at the console. Even voice activation had become a fairly new concept in frain society within the last few years and could only be found on certain high tech systems.

"Can you show me these life forms somehow?" Sil asked looking around unsure sure if she was supposed to address a specific location to properly talk to the computer. After a few seconds the screen on the wall began to glow, and then displayed the large room outside the craft.

The lights in the exterior hanger were coming on one by one, and just coming into view on the screen was Chief of Defense Tok walking beside Leader Wro. Following dejectedly behind them both was the guard that she had tricked at the entrance.

Wro didn't look happy at all, in fact, he appeared to be yelling at Tok.

"Is there a way you can let me hear what they are saying?" Sil asked slowly seating herself into the chair in the center of the room, this gave her the best view of the screen on the wall.

"-o excuses Tok, you should have let the council know about this when you found it ten solar cycles ago. And you should have given more than just that small device to the science sector, they may have had more luck than you getting this craft open." Wro yelled.

Sil grinned at what Wro had said, he was after all right about that. She had been more successful at getting into the ship and the device Tok had given the science sector had actually been how she had done it.

"It was important not to let anyone else know as there was the possibility of subterfuge or a leak to the public." Tok said and then looked to his left at the soldier who had followed them, "and as it seems now with the Head of Astero Sciences Sil being in this facility somewhere without permission, my worries were justified."

"She's probably just doing what you should have done,” Wro said as he looked up at the ship in front of him. “If you find her I want to speak to her personally. The alien craft in the harbor has responded to our communique in a short text message. They want to open communications with us and I want Sil to be the one to talk to them.”

When Sil heard this she was glad that she was in already in a chair as that statement would have floored her. Leader Wro was actually relying on her expertise over Tok's, even more than that, hers over Ret's.

“She was the one who first detected the alien ship and she has very high marks in the fields of math and science.” Wro continued. “Ret has informed me that those could be considered universal languages that the aliens would best understand if mere words failed translation."

Sil had to admit that Ret’s suggestion made sense even if it surprised her, but more so she was surprised to hear the use of the word ‘universal’. Not many really used that word in normal conversation for the last four thousand years, the Progenitor Field had seen to that. Most had forgotten that there was even a universe out there, but many in the science and religious sectors weren't that forgetful.

Tok seemed about to counter what Wro was saying, but the Leader had started to walk back towards the entrance of the Hanger. Tok looked back up at the ship once more, grimaced, and then turned to followed Wro out the door.

"Ok, I've heard enough. Thank you." She said.

"Deactivating external audio. Your welcome. Would you like to view ships status?" The voice asked cordially.

"Yes, please." Sil said and the screen changed once more, this time to display an image of the ship. Sil could now see its shape was that of an oblong with two long objects horizontally attached to either side.

The Language being displayed on the screen was unreadable, but she saw a small area of the ship was colored in green.

"What does this color represent?" She asked pointing to the green section, and then wondered if the computer could even see her action to interpret it.

"That is the section of the ship where you are currently located." The voice replied.

"And where is this, I mean, what is this room?"

"You are currently located on the bridge."

Sil looked around once more, it seemed rather small to be a command center, perhaps there was more to the room than she was seeing. Nonetheless, she decided it was about time she started to ask the important questions.

"What is this ship called, and where is it from?"

"You are aboard the Starship _Causality_ , Registry number NX-32. This vessel was launched on November fifteenth, twenty three seventy seven from the planet Mars, located in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy." The computer replied.

The names and labels in this log were definitely not of frain origin and Sil didn't know most of the terms. Milky Way Galaxy, Alpha Quadrant were most likely place names, just unknown to her. The word ‘planet’ she knew, and the planet Mars sounded fascinating because it was clearly another planet with intelligent life. Not just that, those intelligent life forms were beings who could create technology superior to their own.

"How did the Causality get here?"

The lights of the room dimmed slightly, and the display before her flickered some but then returned to normal.

"Temporal encryption failure. Unknown error.”

Sil didn’t quite understand what the computer was currently saying and was about to ask another question when the lights dimmed again as the computer finally answered her previous question.

“This ship is equipped with a temporal momentum drive which allows the causality to travel through time and space. Logs indicate that an unknown occurrence during it’s last mission caused the Causality to travel back in time four thousand four hundred and ten years and crash on the surface of this planet.”

"Four thousand years, "Sil gasped, now knowing that this ship had crashed almost around the same period the Progenitor Field had appeared around their solar system.

"What was the Causality's last mission?"Sil pressed, hoping to find out more about why this ship was here and if it had anything to do with the field around their system.

"Temporal encryption failure. Mission reports are accessible but require a command over-ride to access.”

Sill looked around as the lights dimmed again. Something was clearly wrong with the computer, and if it had truly been sitting here for four thousand years, it was no surprise to her as to why. The computers voice started to have audio issues for a moment where no words could be understood, but then it cleared up and continued to speak.

“Ships last mission log so states,” Sil’s eyes widened, apparently the computer had experienced some kind of error and skipped over the command over-ride requirement. “The ships temporal drive system was activated and the causality was brought to June thirteenth, two thousand and seven in orbit around the planet earth. No mission parameters have been listed for that time and location. The Captain then ordered another jump to November seventeenth twenty three seventy seven, location Delta Quadrant, to rendezvous with the starship Voyager. No mission parameters have been listed."

Sil's mind raced, all this information about time travel was amazing. But what was the Causality's mission and why were there no details listed?

"What..." she began to ask, but behind her a stream of sparks suddenly spat from the wall and then just as quickly stopped.

"Warning, ships systems have experienced degradation from time spent in power saving mode."

"Degradation?" Sil asked standing upright looking over at the smoking hole in the wall. “I’m not surprised. What is the current state of computer system?”

"Diagnostics show that computer systems have been damaged, eighty-four percent of memory retrieval circuits have been fused and are offline until repairs can be made. Ships systems were not designed to be active for such a long duration without maintenance."

"Let me guess, I suppose all the relative information to this ships mission are now irretrievable."

"Affirmative."

Sil thought about what to do next. She could go on asking the computer questions for a while longer and hope that not all the information was out of reach, but she knew she had a duty to her people. After all, Leader Wro wanted her to be the one to talk to the aliens on the other craft. She decided to ask the computer one final question that she knew would help in that task.

"What is the name of the species who ran this ship? Sil queried.

"Ships complement is currently composed of multiple species, as listed. Thirteen humans, one cardassian, two klingons, two betazoids, four ferengi, four vulcans, and two crew members are half human-half klingon. Total ships compliment is currently thirty one, comprised of the prior listed twenty eight crewman, and three human passengers."

"You mean the crew compliment _was_ thirty one, I do believe you have to recalculate your current data..." Sil said, feeling a bit sorry for the computer. Was it possible the computer hadn't taken into consideration that the crew had likely died almost four thousand years ago? Perhaps the system degradation was to blame.

"Reconfirming data. Proximity to unknown material is preventing scanners from retrieving long range scan data. Adjusting scanners for full strength. Scattering material bypassed..."said the computer, and then there was an extremely long pause.

* * *


	11. Not Alone

* * *

Janeway sighed as she read from her command chairs pop up computer screen. A diagram of the three planet system was displayed as well as various readings on the Progenitor Field, as it had been called by Leader Wro. Nothing she could see indicated a source of the field, natural or artificial in design.

Chakotay, who was still at Ops, had been scanning the planet for any further signs of outsider technology that the frain may possess. But beyond the device they had spotted, which was now no longer registering on sensors, there were no signs of anything.

"Captain, I'm detecting a very powerful scan emanating from the nearby continent, it is scanning the entire planet including us, our shields are not protecting us from it." Tuvok said manipulating controls on his console.

"How can a scan from the planet be able to bend around the planet like that, when line of sight is causing our scans to only reach this side of it." Janeway asked standing to her feet.

"It appears the scan was reflected off multiple frain satellites in orbit."

"Can't we do the same thing?" Tom asked looking up from the repairs he was doing to the conn console. Janeway knew he felt antsy since he was a pilot on a half-submerged immobile ship. And until repairs were done, the temporal anomalies were located and first contact was made, they would be going nowhere.

"No, doing that may give the people on this planet the wrong impression. We wouldn't want them thinking we were trying to sabotage their technology." Chakotay said from Ops.

"Captain, the scan has what looks like a Federation signature." Tuvok said looking up at the captain, "it has a few differences, but it is definitely similar to Federation make."

"What?" she said, barely able to make the word audible.

"I believe that Wro was correct in stating that one of our ships was lost here." Tuvok said.

"How is that possible? Janeway asked, “Could the caretaker have pulled more federation ships than just Voyager and the Equinox to the delta quadrant?"

"It is entirely possible Captain, or they could have come through a wormhole. Many other occurrences could explain this ships presence here." Tuvok responded.

"What can you tell me about the origin of the scan?" Janeway asked.

"I am unable to read a ship, crashed or otherwise at the source of the scan which has now ceased. The scan originated from what appears to be an underground bunker and I am unable to get any readings from inside. I should make note that this is the same location we last had the reading on the device we were tracking." Tuvok reported, "However we could transport outside of the bunker and find a way in on foot."

"Would we be detected?" Janeway asked.

"There are multiple life signs moving about the area as it appears to be a military base, anyone beaming in would be seen almost immediately." Chakotay said from operations.

"Then we'll have to wait." Janeway said, "We'll make first contact in two hours, but first I need to go over a few of the protocols again. You have the bridge, Chakotay." And with that she walked off the bridge into her ready room.

* * *

  
  


"Data now readjusted and confirmed, the Causality crew is not within scanning range, current ships compliment reads as only two life signs detected on board." The computer finally said, the suddenness of it making Sil jump a bit in her chair.

"Two life signs?" Sil said and quickly rose to her feet. Was it possible someone could have survived inside this ship for four thousand years?

"What are the species of the life signs onboard?"

"Life signs read as one unclassified species, and one Human."

"I guess that means the unclassified one is me."

"Affirmative."

"My people are known as Frain." Sil said offering something to the computer for the first time. It only felt fair as the computer had been giving her information.

“Information logged.” The computer replied.

"Where is the other life sign right now?" Sil said returning to the important matter at hand.

"The human life sign is located in the cargo bay, located here." the computer said. The map of the ship appeared once more on the screen which was still flickering as systems on the ship seemed to be failing. From the map she could see that the cargo bay wasn't far from the bridge. She committed the route to memory as best that she could and prepared to head out, now she just needed a door.

"Can I leave this room please." She asked, and after a moment a door slowly hissed opened behind her, dust falling from it as it moved. Sil had no idea if she would be able to ask the computer for anything else when she left this room, but she had to see if she could find the other life form.

Her heart began to race again. She could possibly actually come face to face with an alien and it excited her greatly. A human, from the planet Mars. Or was it from another planet, after all the computer had said the ships crew was of many species. Did they all come from Mars, or did they each have their own home elsewhere?

Her thoughts continue to race as she exited the bridge, the lights in the corridor lighting one by one as she approached. With the map she memorized still in her mind, she turned left down the corridor towards the cargo bay. The door to the bridge closed behind her as she moved away from it.

The corridor was the same color as the bridge and was just as dusty. However unlike before, here she could actually see the outlines of more doors in the walls. Ahead of her at the end of the passage was a much larger door, clearly the door to the cargo bay.

On the door more alien markings were displayed, she guessed they meant cargo bay or something along those lines. Next to the door was a panel, and it was completely black.

She reached to touch it. As her hand came close, the screen lit up displaying a few of touch screen buttons like the device in her pocket had. Sil wiped the dust from the panel so she could see it better and then pushed the largest button.

* * *


	12. Inside

* * *

Harry watched as the Doctor raised a medical scanner to Sevens head. She seemed to react to the closeness of the scanner for a moment and then quickly regained her composure. Harry felt that she seemed uneasy.

"Hold still, Seven," said the holographic doctor, "This won't hurt a bit."

Harry had originally been sent to sick bay to undergo scans to verify that he was physically okay after the incident on the bridge, but while he was on his way there Voyager had crashed. Even with the Captains brace warning, he had had little time to find anything to hold onto. The impact had thrown him forward into a bulkhead and he had procured a nasty cut on his forehead.

The Doctor had dermal regenerated his wound and then proceeded to scan his body, and those scans had found traces of tachyon residue on his clothing.

Chronitons, which were slightly more compact than tachyons, were normally energy based. The fact that these particular chronitons were in a liquid state, which was unheard of, made Harry worry a bit more about his situation.

"So, what happened in the corridor?" Harry asked sitting on the edge of his bio-bed.

Seven had entered sickbay a couple minutes ago in the middle of sentence, one in which she was making a report via her commbadge to the Captain about the corridor outside of the cargo bay. She had then told the Doctor she experienced a loss of focus, a feeling of being trapped, and she was concerned that one of her implants may have been affected by the anomaly.

"There seemed to be a temporal loop in progress." Seven replied looking over at him. She arched her eyebrow when she saw his frown. "However, it seemed confined to that section, I’m sure there is nothing to worry about."

"Who said I was worried?" Harry said sitting up strait to feign sturdiness the best he could. He knew had been getting better at controlling his uneasiness the last couple years, and his experience while captaining the _nightingale_ , however short the command was, had helped him in overcome many of his personal faults.

"You say you felt as if you were trapped?" the Doctor asked, changing the focus of the conversation that Harry and Seven were having as he now scanned the other side of Seven's forehead.

"Yes, I felt as if I couldn't get out, and I didn't belong there." she replied as she shrugged her shoulders to show her discomfort with the concept.

"I see, one of your cortical implants seems to be out of alignment, simple to fix." The Doctor said putting down the scanner and picking up another medical tool. Harry had seen him use the same tool to align her implants before, many years ago when she had first come aboard.

"I believe it to be more than that Doctor, it wasn't just a feeling,” Seven said as the Doctor finished aligning the out of sync implant. “It was also thoughts that I experienced, and I don't think they were mine."

"It's entirely possible, especially given the number of telepathic aliens we've encountered in the past." The Doctor said raising his medical tricorder to scan Seven.

When he heard this, Harry shifted uncomfortably. He remembered back to when the large alien cloud had devoured Voyager and had made its crew believe they had made it home to earth, just so it would have time to digest them.

The Doctors tricorder beeped and pulled Harry back into the moment.

"You appear to have the same chroniton residue on your clothes that Ensign Kim does." The Doctor said making a quizzical expression.

"Well, Misery loves company." Harry said sarcastically in an attempt to lighten the mood which had just shifted dramatically, but judging from the looks now on Seven and the Doctors faces, It hadn’t worked.

* * *

  
  


Sil breathed in deeply to calm herself.

After the large cargo bay door had fully risen, the panel she had used to open it went dark once more, like it had been for four thousand years.

She slowly stepped forward into the dimly lit cargo bay and took in her new surroundings. The bay was a fair bit larger than the bridge, almost three times larger in fact, and its ceiling was twice as high. There were crates and barrels of all sizes about the room, some were on the floor where they had come to rest in what must have been the crash that brought this ship here, and others were still securely stacked on shelves along the wall.

Other than these large stacking shelves on either side, there was only one other noticeable thing in the room. Almost partly inside the rear wall and partly leaning against it at the same time, were two extremely large objects. They appeared to be machinery of some kind, but as to what their purpose was was well beyond her best guess. Both were the same size with rectangular shape on the leaning bases, and tops that came to a curve around the front.

"Where is the life sign?" Sil asked from where she now stood. She had come to a stop in the middle of the room and was facing the rear of the room where the large machines were.

"Life form is three meters straight ahead," the computer said. Sil was glad the computer was able to hear her in this location and that it was still active at all.

She stepped forward once more, now closer to the two objects. Between them was a panel, but it wasn't black like the door panel had been.

This one displayed two separate information displays. The display on the left was showing a quickly flashing alien word in red writing.

ERROR

She had no idea what the alien writing meant so she looked to the other side of the panel. The display on the right had a constant alien word written in green.

ACTIVE

The right also had a blue flashing button on the bottom of the panel, while the left side only had a grayed out solid one.

She hazarded a guess and pressed the blue flashing button.

The panel display changed to that of another alien word, and then the device on the right released a vaporous steam-like cloud from a now growing opening at the top.

Sil stepped backward. She wondered what she had done now, and whether or not it had been the right choice. She hoped inwardly that this vapor was not harmful, toxic or radioactive.

The top and what could be considered the front of the device slowly slid down into the floor revealing a small compartment inside. There, when some of the vapor had cleared, Sil saw her first alien.

The beings eyes were closed, but she could make out that it was breathing, however slowly.

She examined it’s appearance with awe and wonder. It's skin was unlike any color skin she had ever seen, that of the color of sand on a beach. It's hair was light brown, a color that she had only known younger Frain to purposely adorn their hair to be rebellious, although she assumed this was this beings natural hair color.

She guessed that it was a male from his appearance as his bone structure was strangely very similar to that of a frain male. In fact, except for the color of his skin and hair he could have passed as a frain. Although he was also much taller than any male frain by a fair margin.

The human's arm moved slightly and Sil stepped back even further. She had been anticipating this moment, but now she felt uneasy. Dealing with the computer had been a fairly safe endeavor with no possible harm befalling her. But here, with an alien laying before her, she realized that all bets were off. She quickly looked around to see if she could find some type of weapon to defend herself if need be, but she found none.

The panel flashed a blue alien word.

COMPLETE

Then the panel went black. Sil waited a moment, and then leaned in close to get a better look at his face.

"Are you ...ok?" she asked, almost in a whisper, her voice not cooperating due to either fear or excitement, perhaps even both.

"Mff..." the human said, or rather, made the sound.

"Does that mean yes?" Sil asked, peering even closer.

"No, It means my head is killing me." he said suddenly and clearly. Sil was surprised because he had said it in her language, but quickly remembered back to what the computer had said upon her arrival. There was some sort of automatic translation going on.

He made a motion of trying to sit up and reflexively she reached inside and grabbed his arm to help him.

It was when her hand touched his arm that he opened his eyes.

* * *


	13. Awakening

* * *

Chris groaned, his head pounded and his body ached all over. His eyelids were very heavy and he could feel grogginess leaving his body. Had he been asleep?

The last thing he could recall was school, and Ms. Robinson. He had been in the hall near the astrophysics lecture hall helping his teacher with some bags.

 _No._ He thought and corrected himself, _Something happened, there was a blue shimmer._

He tried hard to think of what happened next, but there was nothing. And yet, there was a recollection of something else, something he couldn’t quite grasp at. A few blurry memories flashed in his minds eye, but they were nothing more than images without context.

His hand started to cramp so he moved it and the action actually hurt quite a bit.

“Are you ...ok?” A dull echoed voice from somewhere in front of him worked it’s way into his ears.

Chris found that question to be a fair one, but when he tried to respond he suddenly had a sharp pain in the back of his head. It was a deep pain, but sharp and radiating.

“Mff.” He emitted from his throat in reaction to the pain.

“Does that mean yes?” the same voiced asked him, this time much clearer than before.

The voice he was hearing was quite feminine and soft, but it had a strange layering to it, almost as if someone was whispering just below audibility in the words of a language he could not understand.

“No, it means my head is killing me.” He said as he regained some ground on the pain in his head.

As the pain settled and he could focus on other things, he realized suddenly that he was very cold and that his arms were laying upon naked metal. He shifted to move away from it, and that is when he felt someones warm hand grab his arm as if to help him up.

He forced his eyes open, but he could only see blurry shapes at first, including one of the figure of the person in front of him. He raised his left hand and rubbed his other arm with it to warm it and noticed that it felt like he hadn't used it in ages. The same could probably be said for his whole body, including his eyes which were still having trouble adjusting.

He sat up as best he could from the strange angled laying position he had been in and rubbed his eyes.

After a moment of pushing away the dull feeling of aches from his eyes, Chris opened them again and after a moment his vision became less blurry. He groggily turned again to focus on the person in front of him.

As she came into focus, He froze. What he saw now was not what he hadn't expected to see. This woman’s skin was almost purely white, like snow. Her hair, was almost the same tone of deep pure white he had ever seen as her skin was. The only things that broke up the null of her skin were the slight gray tones that were prominent anywhere bones neared the surface, and the hint of blue hues where you would expect a person to be flush. And then there were her bright blue eyes, affixed on him with a look of wonder.

Before his mind had a chance to process more of what he was seeing, she blinked and he noticed her eyes had changed color. Now he could swear that they were a deep yellow.

His mind raced and his heartbeat followed as he felt completely lost as to what was happening, what had happened, and what was about to happen.

"What..." he started, slightly stammering, "I mean... who...who are you?" he asked not moving a muscle. He wasn't sure if he was able to move if he wanted as he was in too much of a state of shock.

"I am known as Sil, who are you?" She replied after a moment of hesitation. She blinked once more changing her eye color yet again, this time to a light green.

He thought a moment about how she was reacting. Whomever and whatever she was, she seemed as lost in wonder as much as he did and this brought him some much needed calm. At least calm enough to answer her question without stammering.

"Well my name is Christopher, but most people just call me Chris." he said slowly moving his right hand to grasp the side of the coffin like compartment he now noticed he was sitting inside. "Where am I, and what is this thing I'm in?"

"Well, I'm not sure exactly what this is.” She explained. “As for where, Do you recall the name Causality?"

"Causality?" Chris said to himself, not truly understanding the question.

At that moment he felt as if his mind had exploded, or to be more exact, his thoughts had. He saw thousands of images of the past, but oddly he didn't recognize any of them. For a moment he tried to grasp at a few as they raced through his mind, but they passed on unfettered by his attempts. He couldn't make sense of any of it and it began to cause his head to pound again, this time worse than before.

Then, In his mind one word stood out clearly, and that word was a name.

Tobias.

His gaze twisted out of his control and he found that he was now peering up at the ceiling.

 _No_ , he quickly realized, he had fallen out of the tube and onto the floor and was now laying flat on his back. It felt as if he had been hit by a bus. The woman who had called herself Sil was over him and was saying something to him with panic on her face, but he couldn't hear her past all the voices, images, and words that flooded his mind.

But then, after another moment, the pain subsided and the thoughts ceased as quickly as they had begun.

He slowly sat up and looked around.

"What happened, are you alright?" Sil asked, the sound of worry clearly showing in her voice.

"I'm fine now, but my mind was full of memories, voices. I couldn't make any sense of it." he said and then he looked at her again. He felt as if he had just experienced his life flashing before his eyes, something people always said happened to you just before death.

"Are you an angel?" he asked her in an attempt to find some explanation for this wondrous figure before him and the events that were happening.

"What's an angel?" she asked, now kneeling beside him.

He mused, if she didn’t know what an angel was then it was unlikely that she was one. And now that he thought of it, he noticed her clothes were actually fairly nonspiritual. She was wearing what looked like a lab coat, and she had a kind of card hanging from around her neck with an image of her face on it. A Scientist perhaps?

He thought about how to explain angels to this woman as it was not something one usually had to explain. "Well, it's a spiritual being who is said to protect the living, and then after death brings them to the afterlife"

"You want to know if I'm a glorified spirit?" Sil asked seeming flustered. He noticed her cheeks turn a light blue and it almost looked as if she was blushing, "How could you have mistaken me for a spiritual being? I am just a simple Frain."

"Frain? He asked blankly.

"We are the race that live on this planet." she replied.

"Planet?" Chris said having barely been able to form the word. His eyes widened as he started to put it together. "We're not on Earth?"

"No." she said looking at him as if she didn't understand how he didn't know he was on a different planet. “This is the planet Fra.”

Chris started to panic, he didn't know how he had gotten to another planet or how he had ended up talking to what he now knew could only be an alien. He had wanted to eventually meet an alien in his lifetime but this was so sudden. His plan to join the Millennium gate project would have opened up opportunities to work on future space projects and perhaps in the distant future be part of earth meeting aliens, but this.

This was a whole different can of worms. He himself was sitting here talking to an alien. There were no other scientists, no one in charge, just him. What if he made a mistake, a wrong choice that doomed all of humanity to war with an alien race, there were too many variables to get right.

He looked around him at the room in which he and Sil were sitting. No other aliens were nearby, no other humans either. He peered behind him over his shoulder at the large container he had emerged from.

"How did I get here?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"You don't know?" She asked tilting her head quizzically, "I mean I was going to ask you the same thing. You see, this craft was found ten solar passes ago by the military here on Fra, and according to this ships data it appears to have been here for four thousand four hundred and ten of what the computer called years. I assumed those are similar to what we call solar passes. In any case, I just finally figured out how to get inside today and I found you inside that tube over there."

"Four thousand... four hundred... years?" he stammered, his voice cracking slightly. "How is that possible, I would be dead."

She slowly stood making her way around him and began to look at the tube he had emerged from minutes before. "Perhaps this tube is some sort of stasis device, and it sustained you all this time."

"Stasis pod...four thousand... years..." he whispered to himself.

His hands were shaking slightly and she must have noticed because the next thing he knew she was crouched beside him again and had reached her own hand over and grabbed his. Out of reaction he pulled his hand back and looked her in her color changing eyes.

"What are you going to do to me?" he asked fearing the worst. What could he expect? She had been kind enough of course, but who was to say if she wasn’t giving him a false sense of security so that she could find out what she needed before she locked him away. Alien morality could be completely different than that in which he knew. The scientist in him wanted to think better of it all, but he knew he wasn’t really prepared for this.

"I'm not going to do anything to you, but I will try to help you find out what has happened and how you got here." She said again reaching for his hand, and this time he let her grasp it.

Her hand was warm and comforting, but his were still trembling.

"Are you cold?" she asked him.

"No, I'm just in a bit of a shock, I've never met an alien before." he said while looking down at their hands.

"Well, if it means anything, I haven't either." she said and he looked up to see her smiling. Hearing that she was new to all this as well, made him feel a bit more comfortable, but still there remained an uneasiness with the whole circumstance.

"Am I what you expected?" he asked looking down at their hands once more, "...your much prettier than I imagined an alien would be."

Again Sil smiled and she flushed blue once more. "No, you are not what I expected."

A few moments passed and Chris started to feel a bit better. Yet he was at a loss as to what to say or do next. His mind was racing with questions to ask Sil, and other questions about his situation that he wondered if he would ever get answered. How he got here, where here was in relation to earth. The big questions which would likely have no small answers.

"Warning, Primary systems are failing." a voice said from all round. Startled, Chris quickly climbed to his feet and looked around wildly.

"Who is that?" he asked as he still saw no one nearby.

"It's the ships computer, it helped me find you." Sil said. "It seems four thousand years has had its toll on this ship."

Chris grimaced. He still needed time to cope with all that was happening, he didn't need something else making things worse.

Sil started to walk toward the a large door on the opposite side of the large room.

"Where are you going?" Chris asked following her as he looked about him cautiously.

"To the bridge to find out how much time we have left before the ship stops operating." Sil said as she turned to face him and held out her hand. “Will you come with me?”

He paused, hesitant, but after a moment of contemplation took her hand and allowed her to lead him out of the large room.

* * *

  
Really hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!


	14. Grand Entrances

* * *

Janeway exited her ready room and looked about at the lighting on the bridge as it flickered wildly. She had been in the middle of reviewing the protocols for first contact when the lights in her ready room had started to dim and flicker as well.

“Captain, I’m not sure as to what is causing this power surge.” Harry said from Ops, “As far as I can tell the EPS grid on deck one is in perfect working order.”

“Check the gel pack connections, and make sure they haven’t come decoupled.” Janeway suggested. She was glad Harry had finally returned from sickbay as the bridge felt different without him at this station. He had been there for nearly five hours, and the Doctor had sent her a report of his findings on the residue that had been on Harry’s clothes, but with everything that was going on she hadn’t had a chance to review it yet.

“I believe I may have an answer.” Tuvok offered calmly. “It appears that the chroniton life form has returned to the bridge and inhabited it’s systems.”

Janeway moved up to stand beside Tuvok at tactical so that she could see his readouts. He was right of course, the readings matched those that they had seen in Harry when he had been frozen. The life-form or entity, whatever it was, had been haphazardly roaming the ship ever since it had released Ensign Kim. Seven had also reported an encounter with a strange temporal anomaly on deck eight that was most likely caused by the same entity.

To Janeway's left, on the opposite side of the bridge, Harry’s console started to beep incessantly and it’s panels started to flash and display random bits of information.

“It’s following me!” Harry yelped as he quickly moved out from his station.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Chakotay said as he stood beside Janeway. “It may just be moving through systems along the path of least resistance.”

Janeway pulled a tricorder from a slot on the wall near tactical and moved over to stand beside Harry. She began by scanning him, and then moved to scan the station. She didn’t want to assume that Harry was right of course, but it was usually a safe bet that coincidence was less likely than reason.

Her scans showed the entity was present in the Ops station, but thankfully Harry showed no signs of exposure this time.

“You are all clear Harry, let’s give it some space and see what it does.” she said stepping back. Ensign Kim followed suit.

The Ops systems beeped and chirped for a while longer when suddenly at the front of the bridge the view screen changed what it was showing. It had been on a display that showed the planetary system, but now it was flickering through random images of what could only be interpreted as previous communications that had occurred.

What processed on the screen over the next few minutes was almost like a history lesson of every communication they had made in the last year. The faces and voices that they saw and heard were almost like records of previous encounters and missions. They all watched in silence as bits of conversations started to bleed into each other, a word here, a phrase there.

“It’s trying to communicate.” Janeway said stepping forward to grab the upper hand rail above where she normally sat. Everyone around her stopped what they were doing and started to watch the screen as well.

After another moment of unbearable overlapping sounds and images, the image of Wro appeared on the screen and then remained there quietly. It was the same image that had appeared hours before on the recorded message he had sent them.

“...communications...” the recording of Wro said as the image started to scatter and overlap with itself to highlight various words and phrases that he had used. “leader… lost ship… damage, by force…. understand…field, return the past…lost ship.”

And just as quickly as it had all started, the view screen went blank as all of the systems on the bridge went dark. It seemed that even the emergency lighting had gone out.

Janeway stood in darkness for a moment until the lights and consoles slowly came back on and returned to what seemed like perfect working order. As far as she saw, it was as if nothing had happened at all.

“Well, that’s one heck of a way to say hello.” Chakotay said.

Janeway crossed her arms. She thought back over the message and the words that had been used.

“I’m not sure it was a hello.” she said. “I think it was a warning.”

____________________________________________________________

Tok was furious.

He knew Sil was within the restricted area somewhere, but his men couldn't find her. She was either very crafty or simply too lucky for her own good. He knew they would find her eventually however, and when they did she would regret it. There was too much at stake to ignore her actions, and he definitely had no intention of letting her simply walk away and make the first contact with the aliens as Leader Wro had suggested.

That fool Sil didn't deserve that right, he did. It was a military issue, that he knew for sure. He would force the aliens to tell him the real reason for their coming to Fra, which he knew could only be conquest.

He would be ready for them.

He grinned at the sight in front of him. The large craft they had discovered buried in a Glacier range ten solar passes ago was being raised out of the hanger to ground level. The anti-gravity gyros underneath its base were both good for keeping it a loft and moving it around. These gyros were required since no contact with the ships surface by lifts or supports could be made as some sort of protective barrier was surrounding the vessel, not unlike the new ship in the harbor.

But now he would once and for all find a way to gain access to this crafts technology and use it against the newcomers.

"Prepare to fire." he ordered the twelve soldiers behind him. They each raised their energy rifles into position.

Over the solar cycles they had tried different techniques to get inside the crafts outer barrier, but they had all failed. The only things they hadn't tried was a direct assault or explosives as since they hadn't wanted to damage the ship and its wondrous technology.

But Tok didn't care any more. He would get through the barrier around this craft once and for all, and when he did, he would use whichever tactic that worked here on the newly crashed ship as well.

"Fire!"

The sound of multiple rifles firing at once drowned out any other sound that could have been heard and the air took on a burnt smell. The crafts barrier flickered into view, and absorbed every shot.

"Cease fire." Tok yelled and moved to a safe distance where he turned and put on a pair of protective goggles. “Raise the plasma rockets into firing position.”

About ninety yards away was a ground vehicle with a plasma rocket launcher on its cargo platform. These plasma rockets were the newest weapons to be added to Tok's arsenal and this would be their first real test.

"Fire!" he ordered.

A rocket flashed into view and screamed through the air, and in less then a second impacted the craft. This time the craft tilted with the impact and the barrier seemed to stress from the blast. The anti-gravity gyros below the craft began to compensate and after a moment righted the ship once more.

Tok was on the ground. The shock wave from these new weapons was much stronger then he had realized it would be. He was more than impressed at these new rockets capabilities. He amended his earlier words to Sil, it appeared that scientists did have one good reason for being, to make him newer and better weapons.

He climbed to his feet and pulled off his goggles and let them fall to the ground. He reached to his side and unholstered his energy pistol. He raised his arm, aimed down the iron sights and fired one shot at the craft. The tiny plasma bolt hit the surface of the ship without intersecting with the barrier and made a small burn scar on the up until now flawless gray surface.

He had finally done it. He had broken into the unbreakable.

Now all he had to do was make a door.

* * *


	15. Friends and Enemies

* * *

Sil was on the floor, and beside her, so was the alien named Chris. She quickly climbed to her feet and rubbed her side. They had been in the corridor about to enter the bridge, when the whole ship shook violently to one side. The dim lighting had gone out, and then had strained to flicker back on.

" .ng shields... ha.e failed." the computer said almost unrecognizably.

"How did they fail?" Sil asked as she looked over at Chris who was climbing to his feet with a concerned look on his face.

"Shields were not operating at full capacity when impact was registered, system degradation has greatly effected shield efficiency.” the now familiar female voice said as calmly as ever.

"Can you restore the shields?" Sil asked as she entered the bridge with Chris following slowly behind her.

"Unable to comply, circuits have been fused, backup power will fail in five hours forty seven minutes."

Then there was a distant sound of banging metal. Someone was definitely tying to get inside the Causality.

“Yellow Alert.” the voice offered as the lighting in the room turned to match the alert name. “Outer hull has been compromised.”

"What's going on?" Chris asked still looking a bit out of place.

"It's probably the military trying to gain access to the ship." she said giving him a grave look. "I was hoping we would get out before they would be able to get in.”

“You are afraid of your own military?” Chris asked her looking puzzled.

“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t entirely get permission to be here. As for the military branch of my government, it is led by a man who sees only negative outcomes from us ever meeting aliens. He will probably lock me up for being here, and there is a good chance he wont look very kindly upon you either."

Sil noticed that Chris suddenly seemed to sober up to the situation, he looked around intently and then said, "Well, then lets get out of here."

Sil nodded in agreement, and moved over to the console on the wall and spoke towards it. "Computer, is there any quick way off of the ship? Maybe something stealthy?"

"Negative, Transporters are offline. All escape pod launchers are offline and shuttle one and two are not in the bay." the computer droned. “The only egress from the ship would be via external maintenance hatches or through the shuttle bay door, these routes are neither quick nor stealthy as you have requested.”

The lighting in the room changed from a dim yellow to a more prominent red. "Red alert, ship is being boarded, weaponry has been detected. Weapon dampeners are offline. Unable to deactivate weaponry."

"Well guess that means it _is_ the military." Sil said, disappointed that she had been right.

"Will they shoot on sight?" Chris asked as he moved to stand beside her.

"I'm not really sure." she responded, a hollow feeling growing in her stomach. She didn’t have much optimism left about their chances.

"Maybe we can get by them somehow. Sneak out through the same hole they are entering. What do you think?" Chris suggested.

"It's risky, but it may be our only chance." Sil said as she looked him in the eye. "Computer, can you show us the location of the boarding hostiles?"

On the screen in front of them the shape of the Causality appeared. Chris looked to be in awe at the size of the ship. It was strange to her that he had no recollection of the ship, however his look of surprise just now confirmed to her that he had been telling the truth. He truly had no idea where he was or how he got here.

Sil looked over the map before them. The military was entering the ship from multiple access points and were on all sides of them.

"They are too close and there are too many, we would never get by them.” she said, defeated.

"Then there is nothing we can..." Chris began to say but was cut short by the sound of footsteps from the corridor outside the bridge.

Sil pulled Chris behind her, and stood ready to face the judgment she knew was coming. If they saw her before they saw him then perhaps they wouldn’t open fire on sight. It was the only plan she could muster with such overwhelming odds barreling down upon them.

A few soldiers came into view and quickly entered the bridge holding their plasma rifles at the ready, then trained them onto Sil at first and then her companion as they each noticed him.

She heard on of the soldiers gasp, likely from shock from seeing an alien, and another motioned for him to be quiet and to hold his ground.

"State your intentions." Sil demanded holding her arm up backward and behind herself to keep herself between the soldiers and Chris.

"You protect the hostile then?" a familiar voice said from outside in the corridor. As Tok slowly stepped into view, Sil noticed he seemed to be smiling. "I had a feeling you were under their influence. Step away from the alien, Now!"

"He is not a hostile, and he means you no harm." she pleaded.

"Oh, really?" Tok said disdainfully while keeping his full attention on Chris.

"You have no understanding of who he is or why he's here, your just assuming the worst like you always do, Tok!" Sil yelled. Her sudden fiery demeanor seemed to sober Tok for a moment.

"I don't have time for this, Shoot her and take the alien alive." Tok said waving his hand in front of him.

Sil was taken aback by the suddenness of his order. She saw the soldiers look to each other for a moment as if to question the order but then they all raised to aim at her in unison.

This was it. Sil realized that she was about to die.

"Wait!" Chris yelled before the men could finish out following the order. "I will cooperate fully if you spare her!"

Tok stepped forward and frowned, "It speaks in our language? How much easier it will be to get all the information I need from it. A pity."

"Look, I don't know much about where I am, or anything about what is going on, but if it will help in any way, I will tell you what I know.” Chris said as he moved in front of Sil and now mimicked her previous movements, but this time he kept her behind him. “I have no reason to lie to you or keep anything from you. But I will only do this if she stays where I can see her to make sure you keep your word."

Sil was still in shock about Tok’s order that she almost hadn’t registered that Chris had stepped in front of her. She blinked a few times, sobering up to the situation, and caught a glance from Chris as he looked over his shoulder at her. There was so much fear in his eyes, but she couldn’t help but feel that it was for her, not himself.

"Chris, don't..." Sil whispered, but before she could finish she was cut short by Tok.

"So be it! Take them both." Tok said sweeping his arm before him.

Sil was pulled from behind Chris and was held in front of two soldiers by the door. She twisted in their grasp so that she could see behind her.

Unlike a moment before, Chris seemed calm and stood still at the center of the room as the soldiers seemed to be deciding if he was dangerous to touch.

He must have realized this as well because the alien smiled, stepped forward, and raised his hands in front of him before speaking.

"I will offer no resistance, you have no need to forcefully move me, I can walk just fine." He said calmly, then he turned and looked over at her, "and so can she."

Tok seemed to size Chris up for a moment. Like Sil, Chris was also much taller than all of the soldiers in the room, and if he did struggle they would likely have issues moving him by force. This was especially true since the soldiers seemed to fear even touching him.

Sil knew that this fear of the unknown that they were all feeling would be to their advantage. Everything about Chris was a mystery to them, his origins, his abilities, his entire nature. For all these men knew he could kill them all with a single touch of his skin, or he could shoot acid from him mouth.

Sil frowned. She realized she honestly didn’t know what he was capable of either. But from what she had seen so far by how he had tried to protect her, he was at least a decent person, and that was good enough for her.

"Fine then, lead them to the shuttle." Tok finally said and growled. “But if you make one wrong move, she’s dead.

Chris shared one last glance with Sil before he started to step forward toward the door.

* * *


	16. Turnabout

* * *

Chris had no idea what to expect. He was on another planet and he knew little about anything that was happening. On top of that, _he_ was considered the alien.

He and his fellow captive, Sil, walked beside one another being led forward by two soldiers. These men who were both shorter than Chris, a whole two feet shorter from what he could tell, made up for their lack of physical bearing with the weapons they carried.

Chris looked down at himself and found he was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing the last day of classes. But that, he mused, was apparently a very long time ago.

He grimaced at the thought, had it really been more than four-thousand years since that day? It was a sobering thought to think everyone you knew was dead so long that they had likely turned to dust and been forgotten to time. Did earth as he knew it even still exist, and if it did, how far was he from the planet he once called home?

He shook his head, this line of thinking wasn’t going to help him in his current situation. Clearing his mind, he hazarded a glance behind him to get a better handle of the situation.

There, marching behind the soldiers that pushed them forward was the one Sil had referred to as Tok. He was a seemingly overbearing man, regardless of his height. Even further behind Tok were two more soldiers who were also shorter than Chris by the same margin.

Now that he thought about it, Chris realized that Sil was the only one present who matched his own stature.

Chris looked forward when he noticed Tok squint at him angrily. It was best not to antagonize the man, as he had been so willing to threaten Sil’s life.

He looked sidelong at her and noticed that she was watching him intently even as she walked. When she noticed his gaze had turned toward her she quickly looked forward. He decided it was innocent enough as she was likely just curious about him, the alien.

They walked on, and no one spoke a word. Ahead of them there was a stream of sunlight flowing in through one of the entrances Tok and his men had made.

As they reached the hole in the hull of the ship, Chris raised his right hand to cover his eyes from the much brighter exterior. Sil did the same, but instead of her right hand, she used her left.

Out of the corner of his eye Chris saw the shape of what looked like a tattoo or marking on Sil's raised hand. He hadn’t noticed it before and he couldn't quite make it out in the changing light, but he was sure he recognized the shape from somewhere. Before he could look closer at it she had lowered her arm and it was out of sight again, so he put it out of his mind.

Now outside, they descended a ramp and stepped onto a large flat pavement like surface. To either side of the ramp were more soldiers peering at him uneasily, all were holding their weapons at ready. Behind them Tok had reached the bottom of the ramp and had started talking to one of his soldiers.

Chris looked up. The sky reminded him of earths, with white streaming clouds as far as the eye could see, and a familiar looking sunset was starting to turn them shades and hues of orange and red.

All of the trees that he could see in the distance all looked familiar, but from this distance he couldn't entirely be sure. For all he knew, they had bark that was covered in thorns, or even some kind of scales or skin.

He heard a bird start singing somewhere, and this particular thing was the one that was most strange to him. The birds call was so different from those on earth that he couldn't even figure out how to classify the difference.

"Why did you protect me?" Sil whispered as she leaned close to him.

"It was just the right thing to do." he replied, also in a whisper, "After all, you got me out of that stasis pod and who knows how much longer I would have been in there if you hadn't..."

"SILENCE!" Tok yelled as he looked up from his conversation.

Chris could see that Sil was clenching her fists and was resentfully glaring at Tok who ignored her and resumed talking to his men. Around them, the other soldiers could be heard whispering to each other, likely about Chris.

In a way, it was kind of embarrassing to be stared at like this. But all in all he was kind of glad humans and the Frain looked as similar as they did. He imagined for a second what this would all be like if they were huge slugs or talking blobs of goo.

Chris tilted his head as a realization hit him. Why were they all speaking English?

It hadn’t really dawned on him until this moment. Chris realized now that Tok had even mentioned that Chris speaking their language would make it easier to get information from him. So, was he speaking their language, or were they speaking his?

This question stuck with him for a while, and as the sun went below the horizon, they were finally led away towards a nearby vehicle.

  
  


* * *

Captain Janeway placed her PADD down. Night had fallen and she had moved back into her ready room. After the excitement on the bridge with the entity she had found herself with some spare time to catch up on reports since first contact was scheduled to take place in an hour.

She had just finished reading a report Commander Chakotay had compiled on the information the crew had gathered so far about the planet Fra and it’s people. Before that she had also reviewed the doctors report on the chroniton residue, and one on their findings about the Progenitor Field.

However, it had been hard to focus entirely on the reports because when night fell she had found herself in awe of the spectacle of the night sky here. The dark side of the planet now faced toward the field and the sky was filled with the magnificent glow of it. It almost couldn’t be considered _night_ as it was almost brighter than a full moon on earth would be. On top of all of that, not a single star was visible through the colorful display and it made her feel uneasy, almost claustrophobic.

She looked toward her computer where the scans of an unknown vessel were being displayed.

Ensign Kim had finally been able to detect and scan the ship that Wro had spoke of in his message. It seemed that the Frain had moved it during the same timeframe that the entity had been inhabiting the bridge systems. When the _voyagers_ sensors had come back online afterwards, the mystery ship had registered almost immediately.

It was unlike any Federation or Starfleet vessel she had ever seen, civilian or military. The technology used to build the ship was truly in most ways Federation make, yet in many other ways it was very different. On top of that, many parts of the vessel were comprised of what looked to be Borg technology.

This of course had Janeway concerned, as any sign of the Borg was a bad sign. And with _the_ _voyager_ downed and out of commission as of the current situation, they wouldn't be able to withstand any attacks by the cybernetic menace.

She scrolled through more of the information and came to stop on a readout of a strange energy signature they had detected emanating from the heart of the ship. A constant flux of energy was disrupting most scans of that part of the ship as the sheer output of power was immense. And adding to the mystery of it all, much like the field around the solar system, the energy being emanated was chroniton based. It was a good bet the two were somehow related.

Her ready room door chimed.

"Come" Janeway imparted as she continued looking over the readout displayed on the screen. The automatic doors parted and Chakotay entered.

"Captain, I believe you may find this interesting." he said handing her a PADD he was carrying.

She took the PADD from him and looked at the information displayed. It was also a schematic of the ship now displayed on her own screen, but some of the Borg technology had been highlighted and on the right of the PADD's display were the words "Match Found".

"Seven confirmed that this part of this ship is comprised of the same time travel technology of the Borg sphere that tried to destroy Zefram Cochrane's First Contact." he said leaning on her desk to point at the screen of the PADD.

"That would mean this ship is from a different point in time, and judging from the level of technology I’m seeing, I'd say the future." Janeway said, realizing the implications of this news. "But how did the Federation get their hands on Borg time travel technology?"

She wondered if the federation of the future have made peace with the Borg to obtain the technology, or perhaps they could have stolen or backward engineered it? Seven had always said the Borg were very guarded when it came to time travel technology, even so much as to use it sparingly at all, and Janeway doubted that would ever change.

Whatever the case was, their current situation had just gotten more complicated since time travel was likely involved. What if the crew of _voyager_ had already somehow changed the future time line by even investigating this ships presence. Time travel always made one second guess every action in fear of somehow causing a preceding reaction.

Temporal mechanics always gave her a headache.

"I'm not sure, but I also think you should see this." Chakotay said handing her another PADD. "It's the power readouts of that ship, B'Elanna says that the systems on board appear to be about to fail."

"Then we should act before that happens. We need to see if we can obtain the ships logs. Perhaps we should make first contact now and see if the Frain will permit us to board that ship without contest." Janeway said standing to her feet and rounding around her desk.

"I had a feeling you would say that, so I ordered Harry to prepare the connection." Chakotay responded with a smile. She relished in the fact that he really was getting better at guessing her moves ahead of time, after all, he had gotten to know her quite well over the last seven years.

"Very well, lets get to it." she said with a new sense of urgency and anticipation.

After only a few moments they were both back on the bridge and in she was in her command chair. Janeway looked about to observe what was happening around the command center of her ship.

Harry was hard at work at his station calibrating the communication array for first contact with the Frain. Tuvok and an ensign were repairing the console that had exploded behind him during the crash. Tom was sitting at the conn calculating trajectories of possible take off for when the time came to do so. Seven was at her post behind Chakotay and Janeway, most likely trying to determine the origin of the Borg technology on the mysterious crashed Federation vessel. And Chakotay, who was sitting next to Janeway, seemed lost in a distant thought.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Janeway asked utilizing an antiquated phrase she had heard Tom use a few times over the years.

"Oh, its nothing... I was just remembering our first contact with a certain Talaxian called Neelix. We had no idea then that he would become our ambassador to this quadrant. It’s a shame he isn’t here now."

"I know how you feel, after all, this will be our first first contact in this quadrant without him here with us. So I say we dedicate this one to him."

"Hear, hear!" Tom exclaimed spinning around. "For Neelix."

Tuvok appeared to also agree, even though she assumed such a sentiment would not sway his emotional force fields. Behind her Seven also seemed very happy to offer a "Hear, hear" to the announced dedication.

A monitor on Harry's console beeped drawing everyones attention.

"Captain, we are being hailed by the Frain." Harry said looking up. Janeway reveled in the fact that it was almost perfect timing.

"They're hailing us?" Chakotay asked, " I thought we were supposed to be hailing them?"

"Well, whatever the case, lets do this people. Lets make some new friends. Open the channel Mr. Kim." Janeway ordered as she looked forward toward the viewscreen.

She heard beeping behind her as Ensign Kim’s hands glided along his console and the view screen came to life. Now on the screen was a Frain male, of course this was a guess on Janeway's part, as she was still unsure about genders in the Frain society.

His overall appearance was similar to that which Leader Wro's had been. In this mans case however, his hair was a pure white compared to the leader's white and blue. He also seemed more stern and composed than the leader had been, almost stoic.

Janeway wondered for a moment about the fact that Leader Wro was not the one contacting them, as he had sent the first greeting. Perhaps this man was better qualified as an ambassador or negotiator.

"Greetings, I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the United Federation starship _Voyager_ , This is my second officer Commander Chakotay."

The man on the screen just stared at them, and she thought she saw disdain in his eyes, but for all she new it was a normal expression for the Frain. After a moment of not speaking the man moved his head to one side and appeared to be thinking about what to say, so Janeway decided to continue.

"We are pleased to make your acquaintance. We were happy to receive the message from your Leader Wro." She offered.

When the man still didn’t say anything, she glanced back towards Harry who nodded in return as if to say _‘yes, the line is open’_.

"You disgust me." the man finally blurted out with pure anger in his voice. "How can you lie so easily? Your species must be a foul one indeed."

Janeway's mouth dropped open ever so slightly, but she regained her posture within moments. For a second Janeway thought she had imagined what he had just said as it seemed so sudden and random.

"I afraid I don’t understand what you..."she started to say ingenuously.

“You will address me as Chief of Defense Tok.” The man cut in, ignoring that she had been talking. “I have contacted you to inform you we have taken one of your kind as a prisoner of war.”

"One of our...?" Janeway began, now completely befuddled.

"Don't try and deny anything captain, we are well aware of your intentions. You sent your spy ship here a very long time ago to study us. I don't think you figured we would capture it and its occupant. But we have, and he will give us all the information we need about your invasion, even if I have to force it out of him. Be warned captain, any action other than your complete surrender will be considered an act of war. I give you until the sun rises to surrender your ship to us. I tell you now, you picked the wrong planet to try and conquer."

This was getting out of hand. Everything he was saying made no sense, in fact, he was saying almost the complete opposite of what Leader Wro had said.

"Chief of Defense Tok, please understand, we have not come here to..." Janeway again started to say but was cut off with the termination of communication.

"He's closed the link captain." Harry said and a moment of silence covered the bridge.

"What was that all about?" Chakotay said, almost looking completely baffled.

"I don't know, I was having trouble keeping up." Janeway said.

"He said something about one of our kind." Tom said. "Do you think he actually has one of the other ships crew?"

Janeway contemplated that. It made sense that there would have been crew at one point, after all the other ship hadn't piloted itself. And it would be a good explanation to what had just happened, especially if that crew member had done something to upset the Frain and justify what Tok had just said.

"Let's find out, Harry, scan for any non-Frain life signs. Find me that person he spoke of." Janeway ordered as she took her seat.

"Aye captain." Harry said, and got right to work. After a few moments, he looked up and said, "Captain, I found him, One human male.

With their technology level, she considered the chances that the Frain didn’t have transporter technology or even conceive of it being possible. Because of that there was a good chance that they wouldn’t have any kind of defenses against it in place, which gave them an advantage here.

"Can you get a transporter lock on him?" Janeway asked again standing to her feet and facing Harry. With everything that was happening, she couldn't seem to stay in one place.

"Yes, captain." Harry said.

"Lower the shields and Energize." Janeway said with a smile. Now perhaps they could get some answers.

She heard Ensign Kim push a few commands on his console. And then she heard him push the same commands again.

"Captain, every time I try to energize the transporter beam cuts short mid-activation." the ensign said.

"Janeway to engineering, B'Elanna, we're having trouble with the transporters, could you look into it, we need those transporters online as soon as possible."

"Yes, captain, I'm on it." B'Elanna said from engineering. She knew B'Elanna had already had her hands full after the crash, but she knew she had just made the transporters priority. It seemed that more systems must have been damaged than they had originally thought. She definitely hadn't seen the transporters on the damage report Harry had sent her earlier.

"Keep a lock on him Harry, we don't want to lose his location.” Janeway ordered and then looked toward Tuvok. “Re-raise the shields, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Captain." said Ensign Kim and Tuvok at the same instant.

Janeway sat again in her center chair. It had been a long day, and it didn't seem like it was going to be over any time soon.

* * *


	17. Conjecture

* * *

On the approach to what Tok had called the shuttle, Chris noticed that the van-sized vehicle had no wheels or propellers of any kind. He wondered to himself how this shuttle would move them anywhere at all.

Chris and Sil were both quietly led into the rear compartment of the vehicle and once aboard were seated on benches across from one another.

As they sat in silence, Chris's head begun to hurt again. However, unlike the previous event, this time he didn’t see images flashing through his mind. The pain was only now accompanied by a burning sensation near his right temple. He groaned and rubbed his forehead head where the pain seemed to be originating.

"Are you alright?" Sil asked him in a whisper.

Tok and a fair number of other soldiers had gone to another vehicle nearby a while ago, although two soldiers had stayed near the entrance of the rear compartment to watch their prisoners. Of course, it seemed that these two men were more content merely staring at Chris than they were at eavesdropping on any conversation that he and Sil may have.

"My head is hurting again." he replied, also whispering, "But it’s OK, I'll be fine."

Sil nodded and proceeded to peer at him intently, her eyes changing color as she blinked all the while.

“You look like you want to ask me something.” he said.

"I am wondering how it is that we can still understand each other." Sil commented. "I assumed the computer on the C _ausality_ had been translating, but we are no longer on board."

Chris smiled at that, having thought about that exact thing himself a few minutes prior. He was at least glad to find out that they had similar thought processes.

"I had actually been thinking about that myself. I suppose it would be foolhardy to think that we speak the same language." Chris offered and looked to his left past the two guards that watched them.

Near the other vehicle, Tok was looking down at a screen of some kind and was talking to it but Chris was too far away to hear what was being said. Chris looked around at the soldiers who were moving around the area and focused on two that were talking nearby.

The words they were speaking were wholly unknown and alien to him at first, but as he listened the words started to be layered over by English until that was all there was. He realized it had been the same the first time he had heard Sil speaking to him.

“Wait.” Chris said looking over at his fellow captive. “I’m not sure how, but after a moment of not understanding those two soldiers, I began to understand them perfectly.”

"Really?" she said and leaned to look in the direction of the two men he spoke of. "How can that be?"

"I don’t know." Chris said confused, his head pounding more and more every moment. Being cooped up inside this shuttle at the mercy of a madman wasn't helping how he was feeling, of that he was sure. He also knew that this pain he was feeling wasn’t likely just being caused by stress alone, but regardless, he knew that they needed to get out of there.

Chris looked further into the compartment and saw a closed grated door leading into where a driver would likely sit. There was another way into the driver area from outside as well. If they could somehow distract the two guards then it was likely they could slip out and around into that seat and drive away, or fly away, or whatever this thing did.

“Do you know how to pilot this thing?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Yes, I do, but to launch you need to have a security card in the ignition slot." Sil whispered back. “But they took my beta security card earlier.”

Chris heard Toks voice coming into earshot on his left. At first, like with the soldiers, what Tok was saying was unrecognizable.

"Elh olip hhau tatt were as foolish as I knew they would be, they thought they could trick me, Ha!" Tok said laughing.

Chris tensed as Tok stopped laughing upon seeing them sitting in the back of the shuttle. The military man squinted angrily and closed the gap between them with purpose.

"I see you two have gotten comfortable.” Tok said to them both and then glared while he focused solely on Chris. “You'll be happy to know I just contacted your friends to let them know I have you in custody."

"My friends?" Chris asked getting even more confused. He could tell this man was overbearing and paranoid, but what exactly was he talking about now?

"Oh, don't feign ignorance. You knew that they would be here to retrieve you. After all, it’s bad news if your spy is caught and reveals your invasion plans." Tok said moving closer to him. Because Chris was now sitting on a bench along the compartments side, Tok was now eye level with him and was clearly reveling in the equalization of height.

"I told you before, I'm not a spy, I have no ..." Chris started to reply but Tok raised his left hand and backhanded him hard across the face. Pain shot through the left side of his face and he could feel the warmth of blood start to trickle from a newly formed gash above his brow.

"Stop, he’s telling you the truth!" Sil yelled quickly and stood to her feet to attempt to defend him. Chris noticed the soldier behind Tok raise his rifle and aim it at her. Sil appeared to realize her position and slowly sat back down.

"Sure he is, and I am a fartho house fly." Tok said mocking them, he and his soldiers began to laugh.

"Buzz... Buzz." Chris said looking over at Tok scornfully.

Tok stopped laughing and scowled at Chris, clearly not liking his retort. Tok reached his open hand to the side where one of his men placed their rifle in it. Before Chris could say anything more, Tok struck him across the face and everything went black.

* * *

  
  


Captain Janeway took her seat at the head of the briefing room table as the rest of the senior staff also sat in their usual places. It had been a half hour since the communication with the one called Tok, and B'Elanna had discovered something.

"Captain, I have found the cause of the malfunctions in the transporters. It appears that the same chroniton entity that had effected Harry and the bridges systems has now moved into the pattern buffers," the half-Klingon chief engineer said. She was pregnant and she seemed as if she would be ready to give birth within a few weeks. But Janeway knew that wouldn't stop her from doing her work to her normal high standard.

"So that's where that little bugger went too." Tom said looking over at Harry who shivered noticeably.

"Unfortunately, unlike it’s previous system habitations, the entity seems to be remaining in the transporter buffer and refuses to budge from it. Until it does leave, I’m afraid both transporter rooms are offline, and so are the emergency and site to site transport systems."

"Are you reading any more possible attempts at communication from the entity?" Chakotay asked.

"None as of yet.” B’Elanna replied and then turned to the captain with a grave look on her face. “Captain, I am concerned with how the entity could damage or even overload systems as it comes and goes. While I understand the disadvantage of it being in the transporter system, I think we should lock out that system from the rest of the ship. We need to attempt to prevent or slow its migration from system to system as best we can. I would hate to see what would happen if it got into life support, or even the warp core."

Janeway frowned, her chief engineer had brought up a fairly dire possibility that she herself had not considered. This entity, if it was allowed to migrate at it’s own discretion, could eventually find it’s way into a system that could react badly from its presence in such a way as to destroy the ship outright. On top of their own destruction, a warp core breach so close to the Frain city, would likely kill thousands.

“I must agree with the lieutenants suggestion." Tovok added. “Even from merely a security standpoint, we can’t let the entity roam freely through the ships systems. Especially since our scans of the entity have offered no indications of it’s intentions or a way to determine when or where it will move next. In such a case, it would be hard to predict a catastrophic interaction before it occurred."

“I understand the danger, but we have need of the transporter systems at present.” Janeway replied. “Unless any of you know of another way we could beam our mystery human aboard?”

“What about using the _Delta_ _Flyer’s_ transporter system?” Harry suggested. “The Flyer’s transporter is not nearly as versatile as _V_ _oyagers_ , and we would have to make some enhancements before it would work at that kind of range, especially without a transporter beacon on the target.”

“How long would it take you to make these modifications.” Janeway asked.

Harry looked to B’Elanna who nodded back at him.

“We could have it ready in two hours, Captain.” she said.

“Excellent, Make it so.” Janeway said and then pivoted to Tuvok. “What’s the situation with the Frain?”

Tuvok stood and pressed a few buttons on the wall console. An image of the bay in which they now resided came up. Tuvok highlighted the nearby shore and the image zoomed in.

“We have detected large gatherings of soldiers and weapon emplacements along the shoreline nearest to _voyager_.” Tuvok reported. “It appears that like Tok said, they expect us to surrender, or they will be ready to attack.”

“What are the capabilities of their weapons.?” Janeway asked.

“They appear to have weapons of various size and magnitude, but their primary weapons appear to be mainly low yield plasma weaponry. I doubt very much that they would have any detrimental effect on our shields. However, our shields are registering at a weaker state due to voyager being partially submerged.”

"And our weapons? Janeway said and shook her head. “I would hate to have to fire upon them, but if were find ourselves in a situation were we have to, I would like to know our capabilities."

Tuvok pressed another button and the diagram of _voyager_ appeared. Along its length was a slightly angled line that indicated the waters surface in relation to the ship. He pointed to the saucer of the ship.

"Dorsal phasers are in perfect working order, and I have transferred ventral phaser power to other tactical systems as they are unusable in our current position. In that same light, our bow torpedo launchers are unusable, but the aft launchers are still available." Tuvok said, "We should be able to provide sufficient defensive action if we need."

“Unfortunately there are no evasive actions for a parked ship.” Tom said flatly. “If they do attack, every shot is going to hit us.”

“Well, we will have to do what we can to make sure they don’t attack us in the first place.” Chakotay said as Tuvok returned to his chair. “Perhaps we should try and contact Leader Wro again. Maybe there are different ideologies or governments at play here.”

“I am unsure if we should attempt that, we don’t know anything about the political landscape here, and we may cause more harm than good.” Janeway hypothesized. “After all, if we attempt to reach out and Tok answers, it may force his hand and bring an attack well before the dawn deadline. The best we can do is hope that Wro contacts us again.”

“What have you discovered?” Janeway asked as she turned to look at Seven of Nine. Once astrometrics had regained power, Janeway had asked Seven to focus its Borg enhanced scanners at the Progenitor Field. “Is there any indication why this planetary system didn't appear on our sensors before we intersected with it?”

“The energy field itself is resistant to all forms of scans I have attempted on it. As such, there is no way as of yet to see beyond the border of it.” She answered. “The only real readings I have been able to get are from the areas of space directly alongside the interior of barrier itself. The amount of gravitational shear and subspace turbulence in those regions is so great that any attempt to exit the same way we entered would likely end with _voyager_ being torn to pieces.”

Seven paused, seeming to allow everyone to take in the bad news. Janeway contemplated her report. They were trapped here, at least for now. And if the race that lived here had never been able to find a way to leave, what chances were there that they could find a way.

“As for why we didn’t detect the system,” Seven continued. “It is possible that much like in how light is bent and lenses around a black hole, the same could be said of this barrier. It’s sheer size would likely generate a large enough gravity distortion that not even light could escape.”

“Yes, but wouldn’t any ship traveling through this area encounter this system?” Tom chimed in. “While it’s true that our mystery ship also crashed here, according to Captain Mink, he had passed along this exact course a few months ago without any indication of trouble.”

“It is possible that there is an unknown temporal connection to it’s appearance.” Seven interjected. “Or the system could be moving through the galaxy in an indeterminable manner. Unless more data comes to light, we may not discover the real answer.”

Janeway looked over her shoulder and out the briefing room view port toward the barrier as she listened. It was still very bright at the height of the evening, but this had turned out to be an advantage of sorts. They had dimmed all interior lighting so that anyone attempting to look into the ships view ports would likely see only a reflection of the field and prevent them from seeing the crew or any of _voyagers_ technology.

Janeway stood and motioned to the sky.

“Whatever the case, until we get _V_ _oyager_ back into space, we aren’t going to be able to attempt any kind of real survey.” she said and turned back to her senior officers.

She knew that the crew had been working double time to repair the systems damaged in the crash and were also attempting to repair and drain the flooded lower decks. However, it was difficult to reach some of the damaged outer hull while they were submerged. Until they could lift from the water and move to dry land to make repairs, _voyager_ was simply not space worthy.

“And until we reconcile the issues with the Frain, we won’t truly be able to make the repairs needed.” she added. “So let’s get to work.”

There were a series of ‘ _Aye Captains_ ’ and everyone stood and left the room to get right to work.

Janeway smiled as she turned and looked out the view port again to take another look at the barrier swirling in the night sky, and then she also exited the briefing room to help with repairs.

* * *


	18. Enemy Fire

* * *

"Ellie, where are you going?" Tobias asked as his daughter as she ran towards the door.

"Outside to play daddy." she replied stopping mid stride. Outside the window a light snow could be seen falling and the field outside their house was almost completely covered by a foot of the newly fallen powder. Tharazad was the northernmost continent on Betazed and was one of the very few places on the planet that ever got snow.

"Don't forget your mittens." the woman standing at the kitchen sink thought so they could both hear. "You don't want to catch a cold do you?"

"No, Mommy…" Ellie replied and reached for the mittens on the counter nearby. She was eight years old and could only just recently reach them without help.

"Daddy, can I use the skimmer?" the young girl asked him as she slipped on her mittens.

"You know your not old enough yet Ellie, you'll have to wait a few years, but maybe I can take you out on it later. " he said looking up from his work. “I have to fix the replicator first, or your mother won't be able to make us any hot cocoa when we get back." Tobias said smiling at his wife.

With a flash and a resounding boom everything went black.

Tobias found himself lying face down on what was left of the kitchen floor. Around him, fire ate at the debris from his now shattered home. He rolled onto his back and saw a dark cloud moving among the pink clouds above him. This dark cloud was slowly moving away in the direction of the city, against the wind.

Snowflakes and ash both burned and cooled his skin as they landed. Still in shock, he sat up and looked around him where he saw fire for as far as he could see. Trees, homes, and even the snow itself seemed to be burning.

From the dark cloud above came a bright beam of light and another area of trees began to burn. It was then that Tobias realized it wasn't a cloud at all, it was a spacecraft and it was attacking everything and anything that was alive.

Betazed was under attack.

He looked to his right where his wife had been standing moments before, but all that remained was a large fallen piece of roof. There, at its base, was a woman's hand with blood running down the fingers.

“Evelyn!” He called out and quickly scrambled and crawled over to where his wife lay buried. As he approached he could see that there in the rubble, near his wife, was also his motionless daughter.

As he dug through the debris to reach them he could form only one word in his throat, and he shouted it over and over.

"Monsters!" Tobias shouted once

"Monsters!" he shouted a second time.

* * *

  
  


"Monsters." Chris weakly murmured as he awoke.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself laying on a soft surface facing the ceiling. He sat up and gripped his forehead.

It had been a strange dream, full of faces and names he was certain he didn’t know, and yet he recognized them all. Perhaps the dream was somehow connected to his current situation, but how exactly was beyond him.

He looked about himself at his new environment. The last thing he remembered was being in the shuttle being confronted by Tok, but now he was in the center of a large white room which he assumed was some kind of holding cell. Other than the bed on which he now sat, there were no other objects within the confined space.

The lighting inside the cell was bright and it hurt his eyes. He raised his hand to block it and noticed that this brightness was added to by one wall of the cell which was comprised of glowing horizontal bars. Beyond those bars he could see another cell exactly like the one he now occupied, and inside he saw Sil lying on a bed like he was. From his vantage point he could see that she was still breathing, but otherwise she wasn’t moving.

He was glad it had been her that had found him. Sil had been a comfort to him in this strange place, and she had been a source of at least some answers. She had also offered him patience and understanding, unlike all the others he had encountered here so far. But now she was also in danger because of him and it gave him an uneasy sense of responsibility for her well-being.

"Sil." He said as he stood and moved towards the glowing parallel bars. When he reached them he put his hand on one.

There was a sudden shock of electricity and a sharp pain shot through his hand. Chris pulled his hand back and shook it wildly to try and dull the pain.

He looked back across the hall and saw that the noise he had just made had roused his fellow captive. She raised her hand to her forehead and groaned.

"Sil, are you okay?" he asked, leaning as close to the bars as possible without actually touching them.

Sil sat up and looked around, a grave look on her face as she took it all in.

"I think I am, Where are we?" She asked standing to her feet and moving towards the bars.

"Some kind of cell block it looks like, be careful around the bars." Chris said motioning to the glowing partitions.

"Electrified?" Sil asked peering at him from across the space between their cells.

"Very." He replied and held up his hand, showing her the burn mark the bars had produced. He noticed now that the corridor between them stretched out of view to either side but immediately to each side were more cells. These however were empty.

"At least you’ve stopped bleeding." Sil said and motioned to his forehead.

“I had forgotten about that.” he said and in reaction touched where he had been struck by Tok and felt a dull pain.

“I noticed you bleed red, that's fascinating!" Sil exclaimed.

“Why is that?" Chris asked wondering how something so simple could bring her so much excitement.

“Because we Frain have found that of all the life forms on our planet, we are the only species who does not have red blood, instead our blood is blue.” Sil explained. “In fact, even beyond blood color, we have found no evolutionary connections to our own planet. Suffice to say, from where I am standing now, it seems that you have more in common with animal life on our planet than we do."

Chris took in what she said and pondered it for a moment. Sil had mentioned before that her people had never encountered aliens before, but now this suggested they didn’t even really know of their own origins.

“Have your people traveled into space?” Chris asked as he stepped back and turned around to get a better look back at the cell. While they talked, he supposed he could have a quick look around his new accommodations.

“Yes, we have been traveling between Fra and it’s sister planets for about forty solar cycles. We have created colonies inside habitats on them as well.” Sil responded. “We also have a fair number of off world stations.”

“My people had only just started to plan for off world habitats.” Chris said as he walked around the back side of his bed and towards a tall long panel inside the wall that looked suspicious. “I was hoping to join the development team of one of the test habitats, but, I suppose that was a long time ago now. Who knows how far they have come since then, or if they even exist anymore.”

Chris pressed on the panel he was inspecting and it slid aside revealing a tiny lavatory space with a toilet and sink. He heard movement across the hall and looked up to see Sil sit upon the bed in the center of her cell once again. Her height made the bed seem a bit too low to the ground as her legs didn’t have room to swing below her.

“You know, I was meaning to ask you about the height differences between Frain men and woman.” He asked closing the panel once more.

Sil smiled and stretched her arms above herself.

“Frain females are always taller than the men. It’s said that the gods that created us were similar in this aspect and that they made us the same way.” She replied. “Honestly, your height was quite the odd trait to see in a man and it gave me pause at first when I was deciding what your gender was.”

Chris chuckled at that. Beyond their hair, skin and blood color, height seemed to be the only difference between humans and Frain that he could make out at simply a glance. _No_ , he quickly amended, he had forgotten about their eyes.

“Humans can be tall or short, regardless of their gender.” He said moving back towards the bars of the cell. “I know woman who are much shorter than me, and some that are even taller.”

Sil seemed to be taking every word he spoke as if it was the most interesting thing she had ever heard. He knew that hearing all about an alien race was quite fascinating, as he was also right there learning in absolute wonder about her people too.

From down the corridor to his right, a large collection of quick moving footsteps could be heard approaching. Chris tried to peer down the corridor without touching the bars, but couldn't see who was coming.

"Ku miat dial, umb. Sil, heli o" Came a voice, speaking in the same unknown language Tok had before when he had heard him from the shuttle. The voice sounded loud and agitated, almost as if they were yelling.

Another voice chimed in afterwards in response. But Chris couldn’t make out what they had said either.

He noticed however that Sil’s expression had changed to one of relief and she carefully reached her hand past the bars in her cell and waved it around.

"Leader!" Sil shouted sounding relieved, "I’m over here!"

"I can't understand them." Chris whispered to her. Sil looked over at him and seemed to be contemplate that, but her focus quickly fell on the gathering of people that came into view.

Two of the men were dressed in what could be considered formal clothes, at least when compared to the military garb the soldiers all wore. Beside them were two soldiers in a reddish uniform, and another single soldier in a green uniform like Tok’s men had been.

"Mal-ka, Sil. I want you to release her immediately!" demanded the man in front, his words becoming fully understandable only a moment after he came into view.

“Yes Leader Wro, however, I have orders to not release the alien for anyone besides the Chief of Defense himself.” replied the soldier wearing green who seemed uneasy about saying no to this man.

“Alien?” the Leader said, his expression turning from anger to wonder in an instant as he turned and noticed Chris on the opposite side of the hall.

"It's... It's." The man beside the Wro stammered.

"Yes, Ret, he's an alien..." Sil said calmly, and then smiled at Chris.

The soldier in Green inputted some commands into a computer panel on the wall and the bars in Sil’s cell began to part.

"Nice to meet you." Chris said and smiled.

"...Nice...to...meet you..." the one called Ret said as he slowly stepped towards Chris's cell staring wide eyed all the while. Chris was resigned to the fact that he should probably get used to being stared at like this.

"Sil, it can understand our language?” the Leader asked as Sil stepped out from her newly opened cell and took up a position beside him.

"Yes Leader, he can, however now that we're outside the ship we are not sure how. We had thought the computer on the ship had been translating for us." Sil said looking over toward Chris with a confused look on her face. “In any case, he is kind and well spoken, so I have no doubt that he can answer any questions you may have.”

Wro stepped forward and seemed to size Christopher up, so Chris stood tall and met the mans gaze, but he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Luckily Wro spoke first.

“I am Leader Wro, I am sorry if my people have treated you unkindly.” he said with a frown, “It was not my intention to have our first meeting to be handled this way.”

“It is perfectly fine.” Chris said, unsure if he should use the mans title or offer any kind of recognition that he was speaking to a Leader. “My name is Christopher.”

Ret and Wro both exchanged a look at the mention of Christopher's name as something about it seemed to surprise them.

“Head of Astero Sciences Sil, Do you vouch for this one called Chris-toe-for?” Wro asked seemingly having issues with pronouncing the name.

“Yes, Leader.” Sil said in affirmation. “I have seen no ill action from him whatsoever. In fact, when Tok arrested us, Chris moved to protect me.”

Sil glanced to Chris. He again couldn’t help but feel embarrassed at all of the attention he was receiving. In a way, his very nature and his personality were being tested, but as far as Sil seemed concerned, he had passed.

“I am ordering you to let him go as well, we will not have the first alien race we meet thinking we value fear over decency." Leader Wro said as he turned to the soldier in green. At first the soldier appeared to be about to deny the Leader again, but both soldiers in red seemed to square up against the solitary soldier and he gave in and started to press buttons.

As the bars on Chris’s cell began to retract into the walls, a shout was heard from down the hall. Just like before, Chris couldn’t make out the words. But he recognized the voice as belonging to Tok and grimaced.

“Tok!” Leader Wro bellowed as he turned to look toward where the voice had come. “How dare you overstep my orders and act on your own!”

As Chris stepped out of his cell, he looked to his right down the hall at Tok who was slowly walking towards them followed by two more of his soldiers. The soldier in green standing beside Chris retreated quickly toward Tok who gave him a look of rebuke.

“Leader, I was simply protecting the people and imprisoning dangerous individuals, which is in the full jurisdiction of my role.” Tok replied calmly as he stopped walking and left himself standing with his group at least ten feet away.

“I already told you that Sil was not to be charged for trespassing.” Wro said, “And as for the alien, Sil has vouched for him.”

“But can we really trust her judgment here?” Tok replied abruptly. “She and the alien were alone for quite a while, perhaps he has coaxed her in some way to...”

“I will not have you speaking so ill of our guest while he is standing right here!” Wro yelled interrupting Tok. He then turned to Chris. “I hope that you can understand that this mans words and actions do not reflect our views."

"No need to apologize, I am a bit out of place myself and am unsure how to react." Chris said hesitantly, "You see, I have also never met aliens before."

“He lies!” Tok yelled. “As do his friends aboard the crashed ship in the harbor! You should have seen them, trying so hard to feign ignorance oh his mere existence.”

Chris looked over at Tok upon hearing this. That was the second time the military man had mentioned the word _friends_ in regards to Chris. Was it possible there were other humans here somewhere?

“Are you telling me that you contacted the ship in the Harbor without authorization?” Wro yelled toward Tok. The Leaders skin flushed a light shade of blue as he clearly got angrier at this new information.

“I needed no Authorization as I deemed it necessary to lay out our demands of their surrender.” Tok said flatly and nodded to his men. “And as for this particular alien, I believe it’s time we put him back in his cell.”

The soldiers beside Tok began to move forward as they all drew their holstered weapons and held them at the ready.

“Tok, stop this at once!” Wro yelled. “You will make no more action against this alien!”

The soldiers beside Wro took a step forward to face the oncoming entourage and protect Wro. They also drew their weapons. Chris assumed that these red soldiers were like some kind of secret service like on Earth and answered only to the Leader himself.

Tok seemed to contemplate the situation before him. He stepped forward and sneered at Leader Wro.

“If you or your men attempt to interfere, I will have no choice but to consider that you are also under the aliens influence.” Tok spat.

Chris looked down and saw that Wro appeared about ready to burst. Beside him Ret seemed to be in awe as to how Tok was speaking to Wro, and Sil looked equally as concerned.

“I am ordering you, one last time!” Wro started. “Stand down!”

Chris couldn’t help but feel that things were about to escalate, and as if to answer that, out of the corner of his eye he saw Tok reach for the weapon holstered on his belt.

“Look out!” Chris yelled and tackled Leader Wro pushing him out of the way as some kind of bolt of energy flew past them. After they landed hard on the floor, Chris spun his head to look behind him to see one of the soldiers in red falling to the ground, clearly dead.

Before Chris could react again, a few more bolts of energy flew past narrowly missing him, but one hit Leader Wro square in the torso. The Leader let out a gasp of pain and curled up on the floor in the fetal position. Chris quickly slid into Sil’s former cell and started to pull leader Wro into cover as well.

When he had fully pulled the Leader into the cell he sat him up against the wall and looked down at the wound on the mans chest. His gray outfit was stained in blue blood and the area at the center of the wound was burned badly. Chris had no idea how to treat the wound, nor did he know what exactly had been damaged inside the man as his organs could be in completely different places than a humans.

Chris looked over to his right to seek help from the others. On the opposite side of the hall, the surviving soldier in red, along with Sil and Ret, had taken shelter in Chris’s former cell. The soldier was peeking out to shoot down the hall at their attackers. At the very least, Chris could tell that this return of fire was keeping Tok and his men from advancing on them to finish the job. Sil and Ret were both looking across at their wounded leader.

Leader Wro grabbed Chris’s hand, drawing his attention back.

"Don't let... him get away...with this..." Wro said looking directly into Chris’s eyes. He then took his last breath and the life in his purple eyes faded away.

* * *


	19. Relocation

* * *

“Chris!” Sil yelled from across the hall. “Is Leader Wro alright?”

Chris slowly looked up at her, the expression on his face turning to one of dread. He had just watched this man die in front of him and there was even blue blood was on Christopher's hands and clothes. Never had he experienced death so close before, and in all likelihood he was about to see a lot more.

“He… He’s dead.” Chris muttered and could see the shock spread over Sil and Ret’s faces.

The soldier defending them also looked over at his fallen Leader and during the distraction was hit by an errant bolt as it passed by. The injured man slumped into cover and dropped his weapon.

Sil quickly sat the soldier upright, and placed her hands over his wound. From where Chris was, he could see that it seemed like a bad one.

The sound of footsteps started to get closer, and Chris realized that with no one stopping their advance any longer the other soldiers would quickly be upon them. He hazarded a glance toward Ret who seemed to be frozen and not sure what to do.

“The weapon!” Chris yelled to Ret, but it was too late. A soldier in green stepped around the corner and aimed his weapon directly at Chris.

Chris raised his hands to surrender. There was nothing else he could do, not without ending up dead himself.

The soldier before him grunted as a puff of smoke flew up from behind him, and he fell to the floor.

Across the hall, still kneeling beside the wounded soldier, was Sil. She had apparently grabbed the weapon and shot the soldier square in the back. The look that was now on her face was one of desperation and fear.

The soldier which she had been tending to was now slouched in such a way that seemed to indicate that he had either lost consciousnesses or died. Sil had likely either been filled with anger, or dread at the poor mans fate and felt there was no other option than to pick up the weapon herself. Chris frowned at this. No one should be forced to make the kind of decision she had.

Another soldier started to come into view and Sil started to fire again forcing them back out of sight. Chris quickly stood and pushed himself against the wall inside the cell for cover. He looked down at his feet at the body of the soldier whom Sil had just shot. He didn’t hesitate and quickly reached down and picked up the soldiers weapon.

It was heavy in his hand. It’s shape was much like a pistol on Earth, but with more rounded and smooth edges which made it almost elegant, yet it was clearly designed to kill. The energy bolts that these weapons shot seemed to leave little chance for survival for the intended targets. A monstrous design, to be sure.

But at this moment, these weapons were their only chance. He looked toward Sil, who was still firing wildly down the corridor without even looking. He hazarded a peek around the corner while she was providing what could only be described as wild cover fire.

Dozens of black scars lined the white corridor, each left by a bolt of energy from a weapon. Three soldiers could be seen peeking in and out of cells along the hall, and standing dead in the center, was Tok. The military madman appeared to not be worried about being hit, and was simply firing a shot here and there, smiling the whole while.

The man had killed his own leader, and even still seemed to feel no remorse. Sil had clearly been right about Tok when she had suggested that he would have shown Chris no kindness.

Chris looked behind him down the other direction and noticed that after two more rows of cells, the hall simply ended.

"Is there another way out?" Chris yelled and then peered slightly out from cover and aimed his pistol. He squeezed the handle of the weapon in the same way he had seen Sil and the soldiers do it and a bolt of plasma exited the weapons barrel. His shot missed everyone and intersected with the wall directly to the left of Tok.

In response, a bolt hit the wall directly beside him and forced Chris to move flat against the wall once more.

"No, I believe that's the only exit!" Ret yelled as he slowly seemed to be sobering to the situation.

"Of course, it would be too easy otherwise." Chris said wryly to himself and then smiled. He stopped at that, as it had been an odd reaction. Why had he smiled? It didn’t seem like something he would do in a situation like this. Of course he had never been in this kind of situation before, so it was tough to know how one would react.

Chris shook his head to refocus on the matter at hand and fired a few shots at random around the corner. When return fire was heard, he pulled his hand back into cover. There was no chance they could keep this up for very long.

“Ret, what are you doing?” Chris heard Sil yell. Chris looked to his left at his companions and saw that Ret was trying to reach for the first red soldiers weapon, which was still in its holster. It was highly unlikely that Ret would be able to reach it without getting hit if he continued.

“Let’s give him some cover!” Chris suggested over the sound of countless energy blasts.

Sil nodded and they both started to fire with purpose. This allowed Ret quickly reach out and pull the soldiers body closer so that he could get the weapon.

Now, all three of them were armed. Christopher wouldn’t say that things were looking up, but at the very least, things weren’t as grim as they had been a moment before.

Ret tapped Sil on the shoulder and moved to take her place near the edge of the wall so that she could take a breather for a moment.

Chris looked down to his side, and saw Leader Wro’s body. The man had died attempting to obtain their release. He had died because of Chris. This made anger start to well up inside of him and he peeked again to see if Tok had taken cover yet. He had not.

Chris aimed, gritted his teeth, and squeezed the handle of his weapon. This time his shot hit Tok directly. It had caught the slight of his face near his left eye. Tok let out a scream as he fell to the floor clutching his wound. One of the soldiers came out of his cover to try and help his commander, but was shot in the leg by one of Ret's blasts and fell over wounded.

Tok pulled himself off the ground and ran out the far door and out of sight. The wounded soldier who had tried to help Tok crawled back into cover.

Even though he had hoped to, Chris took no pleasure in the fact that he had hit Tok. Now that he was experiencing real violence, he knew that it was not something he wanted to give in to if he had a choice.

Across from him, Ret peered out from his cover and fired a shot and hit a soldier in the face as he had also leaned out to fire. The soldier went limp, clearly dead. Unfortunately, before Ret could fully hide his exposed left side, a soldier successfully produced a shot that made contact with Ret’s left arm.

The wounded Frain dropped his weapon and fell into the cell clutching his wound. Sil quickly pulled him further into the cell.

From where he was, Chris could tell Ret was injured quite badly, as these weapons ensured. His blue blood was quickly staining his gray outfit.

Chris continued to fire as Sil tended to Ret. She ripped a portion of what Chris guessed was the Frain equivalent of a sheet, which had been on the bed in the cell. She then wrapped the wound with the torn cloth. Ret nodded to her and she moved to continue the fight.

At the other end of the corridor more soldiers had entered the cell block and had joined the battle. Whatever hope Chris had left was dwindling fast.  
"We're quite outnumbered." Sil said after she successfully downed another soldier. "Tok must have called reinforcements."

"What should we do?" Chris asked.

"Just keep shooting, I'm not going to give up, even if I have to take on the whole military." Sil yelled with apparent determination.

"I'm with you!" Chris replied. He realized then that the three of them would most likely die here in this cell block. He would never find out how he got to this planet and would never find a way home.

* * *

It had been an hour since Captain Janeway and her senior staff had returned to their stations after their meeting in the conference room. She now stood next to Chakotay at ops reviewing information on the repairs that were still underway.

"Captain, I'm picking up a large number of weapon signatures in close proximity to the human life sign we’ve been tracking. It appears to be some kind of exchange of fire. Three Frain life signs in close proximity to the human and two of those seem to be in critical condition." Tuvok said.

Chakotay changed one of the ops screens in front of them to show what Tuvok was seeing. A pit formed in Janeway’s stomach. It appeared that the Frain were fighting over the human. Perhaps Chakotay was correct when he said two differing factions were now fighting for control. From the trajectories of the shots on the readouts she guessed those Frain nearest to the human were helping or at the very least protecting him. In either case, if the human died in the firefight then they would get no answers.

"Janeway to Lieutenant Torres.” Janeway called. “What's the status of the transporter plan?"

"We are right on schedule captain. We’ve been able to tie the Delta Flyer’s transporter system into Voyagers, however we still have about another hour until we have the targeting scanners synced." the chief engineer responded.

“I’m afraid we need those transporters now. The situation just became urgent, and it looks like we now have four individuals we need to beam.” Janeway said. “Is there anything you can do?”

“If we bypass the targeting systems and use voyagers sensors themselves to simply get the coordinates and do a localized beam out of anyone in the area, it may work.” Ensign Kim replied from the same communication line already open with Torres.

“It could work captain, but even if we do that, the system can only handle one to two people at a time.” B’Elanna added.

"Alright, it will have to do. Tuvok will lower the shields at your discretion Lieutenant, just give him the word. Beam the human and three Frain life signs located nearby directly to sickbay." Janeway said moving towards the turbo lift. "Chakotay, lets go meet our guests."

* * *

  
  


Sil realized that they were becoming more and more outnumbered. As far as she could tell, fourteen new soldiers had replaced the six they had already managed to kill or wound. Both she and Chris had both overcome their hesitance to kill as they were most likely to befall that same fate if they stopped fighting back.

Chris was still across the hall taking cover in her original cell and he was looking as determined as ever. It seemed amazing to her that they had been able to survive this long, but she guessed their will to live gave them an edge over these soldiers who were simply there following orders.

Behind her, Ret had lost consciousness like Leader Wro’s protector, both likely from loss of blood or shock. She worried about her dear friend and colleague, and she didn’t think she could handle dealing with another loss, especially after already watching Leader Wro be murdered. This entire situation was spiraling out of control.

Not too long ago she had picked up Ret’s weapon to hold in her other hand and was now using both simultaneously to hold back the oncoming forces.

Every so often she would look over at the human to make sure he was alright, and each time she could see despair in Chris's eyes. But also there beside the despair was determination, as he also seemed intent on fighting to the very end. He had courage she could tell, although she was unsure about her own. Could she really face death when it came, and had it already come? Would she die here?

Chris stopped shooting suddenly when he seemed to notice something happening behind her, perhaps Ret was conscious again. She turned to check on her wounded friend, but both he and the protector were gone. All that remained were small stains of blood where they had each been leaning against the wall.

"They vanished!" Chris yelled purely shocked.

Sil looked over to Chris, who was about to say something else, but two soldiers ran into view and each aimed at them in conjunction. She realized that they must have stopped shooting for too long a time and the enemy had taken advantage of that and advanced.

“Drop your weapons!” one of the soldiers commanded.

Sil quickly dropped her weapons to the ground and put her hands up. Chris seemed to hesitate but begrudgingly complied as well. Thankfully, the soldiers seemed to be keen on taking them prisoner, and not simply shooting them outright. It was likely Tok didn’t want to lose his prize.

“Where are the other two!” The soldier aiming at Sil bellowed as he aimed around the cell to look for them.

Sil wasn’t sure what to say so she remained quiet. In the other cell, the soldier aiming at Chris shoved him toward Sil and he fell to the ground at her feet. She bent to help him up, but as she did she felt a strange tingle run across her skin and the room around her began to shimmer.

The shimmer reminded her of when she had been teleported into the alien craft where she had discovered Chris. This time however she didn’t teleport directly into darkness and she could see clearly as the room around her changed from a white battle scarred corridor into a strange room with gray walls covered in lights and computers.

She noticed that Chris was standing beside her and he was also staring at their new surroundings.

To their right a few raised beds lined a curved wall. On the farthest one from them lay the soldier that had been injured during the fight. Further still along the wall was small round area of room with a larger bed in the center. On this large bed lay Ret.

She quickly moved over to her colleagues side before she had even noticed the alien standing on the opposite side running a device over Ret’s wound. He looked to be the same race as Chris.

"Where are we?" Chris said from behind her. "Who are you and what are you doing to him?"

Sil had wanted to ask those same questions, but had hesitated, for she was confused as to what had just happened.

The alien before her was wearing a green and black uniform of some kind and his head had black hair on the sides and back, but none at all on the top. He had the same skin color as Chris, and was also as tall as he was.

After a moment the alien looked up and said, "You are aboard the Starship _Voyager_ , I am a doctor and your friends require my attention." He quickly raised his hand and held a device in their direction, after a moment he said, "Your injury's appear to be superficial and can be dealt with after I tend to these two other patients."

Before Sil could say anything, a door at the opposite end of the room hissed open and four more aliens entered.

The first two of the entering aliens wore red and black uniforms that were the same design as the alien doctor’s. The second two that entered wore yellow and carried what looked to be weapons on their waists. While the two in red continued towards them, the two in yellow stopped just inside the doorway and remained in a vigilant stance.

One of the aliens in red was what Sil guessed was a female, and the other was male. The male had a form of body art on a portion of his face unlike any she had ever seen before. All of the aliens had small gold pieces of metal on the collar of their uniforms, although the number of them varied, and they all also had a strangely shaped piece of metal on their left upper chest.

As the two in red came to a halt directly in front of them they both appeared to take specific regard of Chris, but then the female addressed them both equally.

"Welcome aboard, I am Captain Kathryn Janeway and this is Commander Chakotay, my second officer." the female in red said motioning towards the male beside her.

"My name is Christopher Moss, and my companions are Sil, Ret and I’m afraid I don’t know this soldiers name." Chris said motioning to each of them in turn. Sil was glad he had spoken for her as she was still a bit dazed from the whole experience.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." the woman who introduced herself as Kathryn Janeway said. How could Sil possible remember such a long name? She had thought Chris's name was hard enough before she even knew he had a longer version of that same name, Christopher Moss.

The male who had called himself a doctor spoke up next. "Captain, I can heal these wounds without any complications, but I will need the room, and Mr Paris’s assistance."

"Very good doctor, let us know when they are conscious." Janeway said in reply, and then returned her attention to Chris. "I’ll be completely honest with you, we were surprised to find another human here on this planet, perhaps you would like to tell us how you got here, but in a more comfortable setting where we won't distract the doctor from his work."

"Of course. I'm actually eager to find out where exactly this place is, you see, I actually have no idea how I got here." Chris said stepping forward.

Sil hadn't spoken a word as of yet, and decided to finally do so. "Excuse me...but how did we get here, the last thing I remember was fighting for our lives in the cell block.

Janeway and Chakotay looked at each other and smiled.

"We have a device called a transporter which allows us to move people and objects from one place to another instantaneously." the one named Chakotay replied, "But for now, I think we should concentrate on introductions, technical questions can come later."

"Come, let us move to our conference room." Janeway said motioning towards the door.

* * *

**Reference image for this chapter :**

Voyagers Sickbay

_Note : Unlike the above story, I did not create this image, it has been sourced from the internet._


	20. Conference

* * *

Christopher, Sil, Ret and an ally soldier had all somehow been whisked away from the battle to the ship that the woman who was now in front of Chris had called _Voyager_.

Ret and the soldier had been badly injured and the doctor on the _Voyager_ had thankfully said he could help them _._ Chrisand Sil were now being led by Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay to a conference room so they could discuss the situation at hand.

Silwas in front of him walking beside the one who had introduced herself as Captain Janeway. The one called Chakotay was walking beside him. Behind them all he saw that they were being followed by the two men in yellow and black uniforms.

After a moment of walking in silence, Janeway greeted another man who was walking towards them in the opposite direction. He was wearing the same type of uniform their new hosts wore but it was same color the doctors had been, green and black. This man stepped aside and let them pass, and as he did he made eye contact with Chris and nodded. Chris decided to nod back, after all, it was what he would have done if he had been nodded to on the street back on earth.

Chris had been shocked to see another human on this planet, let alone, what he guessed was a ship full of them. He was relieved that humanity was still around, and from what he could tell they had advanced in technology quite a bit.

Sil seemed to be keeping her attention on her surroundings as if they would vanish any moment. Of course, he guessed because it had happened to her already today, who was to say it wasn't going to again? His Frain companion also seemed focused on the one called Janeway as well and Chris wondered what was going through her mind. Did she feel as out of place as he did, and was she frightened at all?

They all turned a corner and walked down an even shorter corridor to a set of split doors which opened as they approached. Inside Chris saw a small room no bigger than an elevator which he mused that this was what this was.

"Everyone in, this turbo lift will take us to deck one and the conference room." Janeway said stepping inside. Chris smiled to himself, he had been right in his assumption about the elevator.

Sil hesitated for a moment and then entered the small space and stood near the back wall facing the door they had just entered. Chris could now tell Sil was feeling a bit uncomfortable so he entered the turbo lift and stood beside herin an attempt to make her feel more safe. She looked at him and smiled, so he returned the smile.

It would have likely been crowded with all six of them on the lift, so one of the men in yellow and black stayed behind. He watched them in a stoic stance as the doors closed.

"Deck One, Conference Room." Chakotay said after the doors had closed. The lift began to hum but Chris felt no disorientation of movement as he would have expected from an elevator.

After about thirty or so seconds the doors opened once more, revealing another series of shorter corridors. After taking one left and following the hall for a moment they came to a door at the end. As they approached, the door hissed open and they all walked inside.

The room before them now had a large window set above large central table surrounded by chairs. Janeway moved to the end of the table and motioned for them to sit. Out of the six remaining chairs Chris decided to sit on the right side of the table, two chairs from Janeway on her left, to leave space for comfort. Sil sat to his left, and glanced at him, she smiled and then let her focus fall on Chakotay who had sat in the chair to the right of Janeway across from them.

After everyone had gotten settled, Janeway began. "Again, we want to welcome you to the United Federation Starship _Voyager_."

"Thank you, Captain, I should tell you, I was surprised to see other humans after I found out that I was on an alien planet." Chris said leaning forward. He was eager to learn all he could.

"Yes. And we are equally anxious to hear about how you got here, but in sickbay you said that you don't know?" Chakotay said. "Do you not recall any part of your journey here?"

"No, you see, before Sil found and woke me on that other ship, I was to my knowledge still on Earth." he said leaning back in his chair again.

"Woke you?" Janeway asked catching what he had said with an interest.

"I found him in some sort of stasis pod." Sil said, speaking up for the first time since they had left what Janeway had called sickbay. "When I woke him, He seemed very confused, and disoriented. I believe him when he says he knows nothing of how he got here."

"I see, where and when were you last on Earth?" Janeway asked.

"I was at the California Institute of Technology, and as for when, It was June thirteenth, two thousand and seven. I was talking with one of my professors and then I found myself being transported much like you did to us earlier. Then, the next thing I knew I was waking up in that stasis tube still wearing the same clothes as if no time had passed at all. Other than this headache I have, I feel exactly the same as I did before." Chris said and shrugged. He then noticed then that both Janeway and Chakotay had froze and had a look of surprise on their faces.

"Did you say two thousand and seven.?" Janeway asked.

"Yes, and I understand a lot of time has passed, the computer on the other ship had told Sil something about four thousand four hundred years passing." Chris said.

Janeway looked over to Chakotay and then said, "Well I'm not sure what that computer told you, but its only been three hundred and seventy years, not four thousand. As of about two hours ago, Its November seventeenth, twenty three seventy seven, by Earths old calendar."

"Three hundred and seventy?" Chris said to himself. He was relieved that it hadn't been as long as he had thought, but what about the four thousand years the computer on the other ship was talking about. Could Sil been mistaken? He looked over at her and sought more information, "Do you remember exactly what the other ships computer said?"

"Somewhat, It said something about time travel and an unknown occurrence that caused the ship to travel back in time four thousand _years_.” Sil said seemingly still getting used to the word years. “So perhaps you were taken from your time and then an accident brought the _Causality_ backward in time four thousand four hundred years where you stayed until I found you.”

“It’s a good hypothesis.” Janeway said. “Our scans show that ships systems are suffering from extreme age and are failing.”

“Yes, but what I don't understand is that it seems the other ship, the _Causality_ , was trying to come to this exact date. You had said it was November seventeenth, twenty three seventy seven, and I’m certain that was the exact wording of the date the Causality was attempting to head to. And all of this happened right after you crashed here.”

Chris watched as Janeway studied Sil, then she said, "It seems there is much to this mystery that is still yet to be revealed. We believe that based on it’s technology the other ship, which you say is called the C _ausality_ , is from the future, so hearing that Mr. Moss is from the past was quite a surprise to us. I hope that you both and your friends in sickbay are willing to cooperate with us to discover what has really happened here."

"I will, after all, I am part of this mystery." Chris said. He was glad to have others who were also looking for answers as it allowed him to not feel so alone.

"I will as well.” Sil replied. “I believe the answers we seek may help both our peoples. For one, the field that surrounds our star and its planets appeared at the same time that the _C_ _ausality_ had crashed here four thousand four hundred years ago.Again, that istoo exact of a connection to be a coincidence."

"I would have to agree.” Janeway said and then turned to Chris. “I understand this may come as a shock to you Chris, but we are currently twenty eight thousand light years from earth, so we ourselves are far from home."

"How have you come to be so far from Earth?" Chris asked after a short moment of taking in the information Janeway had just offered him. Chris tried to imagine an image of the galaxy in his mind and just how far that distance was. His studies in Astrophysics gave him some idea as to just how far away Earth was at present, but without knowing the maximum speed ships like the Voyager could travel it would be hard to judge the time it would take to get home.

Janeway looked over at Chakotay and then back to Chris, "That's a long story. And we'll get to that in time." She said, paused and then continued." But first, Sil, I think we should discuss the situation of relations between our two peoples. Things have become a bit confusing from our perspective. We have already been in contact with two of your planets representatives before you. One called himself Leader Wro and he sent the first message to us. In it he seemed to welcome us here and clearly wanted to open a dialogue. But then Chief of Defense Tok contacted us and started making accusations that we were here to invade, he closed the connection before we could explain that we crashed here by accident."

"Tok is a madman and he killed Leader Wro. He would have killed me also if Chris had not gotten him to spare me." Sil said and then looked to Chris with gratitude in her eyes, which were for the moment, blue. "And if you hadn’t teleported us out of there when you did, we would both most likely be under interrogation, or worse."

"I see, then it seems we may have to find a new approach to this situation, we don't like being pulled into conflict and we would rather seek a diplomatic solution when possible." Janeway said as she met her commanders gaze.

“Honestly, I am not sure what my people will do now.” Sil said with a frown. “Leader Wro was the first leader our unified people had ever elected. Before that my people consisted of different factions that all fought over land, sea and space alike. Even after he was elected leader it had taken so many solar pa- _years_ to build up the Frain Protectorate, and in one act, Tok has all but doomed it.”

“In situations such as this there is no way to know what will happen next, but if there are enough of your people who are like Leader Wro and yourself, then I have no doubt the Frain will be able to get through it.” Janeway offered with a supportive smile.

While listening to Sil and Janeway talk, Chris had found himself unable to concentrate on anything else in the room besides Chakotay and the badge on his left chest. It looked familiar, but the memory of how that was so was just out of reach. He knew had seen something similar back in two thousand seven, but where and how he couldn't remember. The moments just before he was taken from his own time were jumbled now as he attempted to remember.

An image of Professor Robinson's face appeared in his mind. She was looking down at something in Chris’s hand. But what was it? The sound of his heartbeat begun to resonate in his ears and all other sound in the rest of the room faded.

“Saturn.” Professor Robinson said in his memory as the pain in Chris's head began to surface again, he winced and rubbed his temple. Chakotay seemed to take notice.

"The headache you spoke of?" the commander asked.

"Yes, it seems to come and go at random." he replied as he shook his head and brought himself back into the moment. “And it can get quite severe very quickly.”

"Perhaps I should return our guests to sickbay and check on the condition of their friends. The Doctor may be able to determine the cause of Chris's headache while we are there." Chakotay suggested. “On top of that, Mr. Paris is there, and he may be able to bring Chris up to speed on what’s happened on earth since his time.

"I'd say that would be a good idea, Tom Paris is somewhat of a history buff, especially of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries. You two may have a lot to talk about." Janeway said in explanation as she stood. "Sil, If you remember anything else the computer on the Causality said that may be pertinent to our situation, please don't hesitate to tell us." Captain Janeway said as they all stood and approached the door they had entered through.

As they again walked through the corridors of the ship Chakotay made small talk with Sil and Chris merely listened. The commander asked the Frain scientist about her job and what it pertained to. Sil’s responses made Chris realize that she was much more like him than he had realized as she worked in a field similar to astrophysics.

As they were waiting inside the turbo-lift for it to bring them to their destination, Sil asked Chakotay about the _Voyager_. He responded with the few tidbits of information that time allowed. Mainly he explained the crews size, the number of decks on the ship and its max speed at something called warp.

As they approached sickbay once more, Chakotay addressed Chris.

“Mr. Moss, I’m curious, you said you were in college in California in two thousand and seven, but by any chance were you also in California in nineteen ninety seven as well?” the commander asked.

“I would have been about twelve.” Chris said and thought about the answer, “No, My family lived in Indiana around then. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I was just checking something.” Chakotay said as the doors to sickbay parted. “It’s just a period that we had visited ourselves once during a time travel incident and I was just making sure the two events weren’t connected.”

Chris hadn’t realized that the _Voyager_ or its crew had traveled in time as well, so perhaps there was a chance that they could get him home again. Before he could inquire more into it a man in red and black approached them as they entered sickbay.

“Commander, one of the Frain has been patched up and is resting, but the other is still in surgery.” the man said. “The Doc has it handled and asked me to check on our guests here to see if I can take care of any wounds they may have.”

“Christopher, Sil, this is Lieutenant Tom Paris.” Chakotay explained.”Mr. Moss here has been having severe headaches ever since he woke up in a stasis pod. Apparently he was asleep for quite a while. He is from the year two thousand and seven.”

Tom Paris motioned to a nearby bed and Chris moved to sit upon it. Sil moved behind the bed and stood there, listening.

“Oh, a denizen of the twenty first century.” the Lieutenant quipped as he started to pass a device over the cut on Chris’s forehead. The pain from that particular wound started to fade almost immediately, but the headache persisted. “Should we worry about saying too much about our time period, what if we alter history or something?”

“It’s unlikely that we will find a way to send him home. We are very far from earth and we have no means to open any type of temporal rift." Chakotay said. “Besides, as he arrived in our time by the means of sleeping in a stasis pod, he technically isn’t a time traveler.

“But commander, didn’t you just say that you traveled in time to the Earth in nineteen ninety six. Are you saying you can't do it again?" he said genuinely showing his confusion.

Tom exchanged a glance with his commander and they both frowned.

"In that particular instance, the time travel itself was out of our control. I’m sorry if I had gotten your hopes up, but so far it doesn't look like we can send you home." Chakotay said clearly disappointed to have to tell him this.

“Well, whatever the case, could you tell me about your trip to ninety six?” Chris said. “I would like to hear about it.”

Tom smiled, and started to regale Chris with the story as he picked up a second set of devices and started to pass the smaller of the two over Chris’s body.

* * *

**Reference image for this chapter :**

Voyagers Conference Room

_Note : Unlike the above story, I did not create this image, it has been sourced from the internet._


	21. Upgrade

* * *

Tok stood in the former Leader's office facing the window as he watched the Progenitor Field swirl in the night sky. In the glass he could just barely make out his own reflection in the evening light. His left eye was damaged beyond recognition and he was now blind on that side. He had been told that the scars that accompanied the wound itself would most likely never heal.

Tok scowled. He would see to it that the despicable alien that scarred him would pay dearly. And before that alien was put to death he would feel pain beyond anything he could imagine. But first he had to find him.

Shortly after he had been forced to flee from the battle because of his injury's, Tok had returned to find that the alien and his traitorous Frain companions had mysteriously vanished. All that remained were both Wro and one of his protectors bodies. The alien Janeway must have had something to do with their disappearance. He cursed inwardly at her and her kind. He would see to it that they would not conquer his planet.

"Excuse me sir, the men have been assembled. "Tok's second in command reported as he entered the room. "What are your orders?"

Tok turned and allowed his second in command to see his wounds for the first time. The second seemed to be in shock, but Tok gave him a hard glance and he again stood at attention.

"Close the perimeter around the vessel on the shore, and order all of the water units to pull back and form a half circle on the far side, they won't want to be nearby when we open fire.” Tok said “Are the scavengers ready?".

"Yes sir, they are airborne and heading in this direction, ETA five minutes." his subordinate replied.

"Good, have them open fire as soon as they arrive, tell your men to follow suit and also open fire at that point.”

“But sir, Did you not give the aliens until dawn to surrender?” his second questioned.

“By rescuing the prisoner of war, they have made their intention clear. And we will make ours just as clear. Today is a day that will be remembered in history as our greatest victory." Tok grinned at his own malevolence.

After his second had left to initiate the attack, Tok turned back to face the window once more.

"My their blood stain the waters." he said to his reflection who grinned when he did.

* * *

Chris looked over towards the end of the sickbay as the Doctor lowered the clam shell like partition that had been over his patients body. Apparently the surgery had been a success and the Doctor was leaving the soldier to rest. Neither the soldier nor Ret had awoken as of yet, and Chris couldn’t help but wonder how they would react to being on _Voyager_ when they did.

Christopher himself had slowly been feeling a bit more comfortable in these new surroundings as he listened to Tom’s story of the crews travels in nineteen ninety six. He couldn’t help but smile each time Lieutenant Paris had mentioned something from his time that he recognized.

He knew many of the names of places Tom spoke of. For one, Chronowerx had been the largest manufacturer of computer software back in those days. The company did however collapse when the CEO had disappeared and the tech giant stopped making innovations. But Chris now understood a part of the Chronowerx downfall that no one in his time knew about, and it made him smile.

Tom had explained about Henry Starling, Captain Braxton, how the time ship that had brought them there had been destroyed, and that they had accidentally been caught on camera flying low over the city.

While Tom was mentioning stealing a truck, Chris heard Sil laugh behind him and looked over his shoulder. A few minutes before, Sil and Chakotay had gone over to where Ret was asleep and she had sat upon the bed closest to her unconscious friend. Sil and Chakotay had begun to converse, but because Chris was listening to Tom’s story he couldn’t make out what was being said in the other conversation.

"Your friend seems to be getting more comfortable in her new surroundings." Tom said clearly having noticed Chris’s attention had been drawn elsewhere.

"Yes, It seems your right.” Chris said as he continued to look at Sil. “It’s strange, although I am human surrounded by my own kind, she seems to be handling this whole situation better than I am. If it wasn’t for her, I am not sure if I would have been able to handle the transition at all."

Chris realized he was clearly staring and he quickly focused back on the man who was talking to him.

“So, You were telling me about how you had been able to blend in while in ninety six?” Chris said to attempt to redirect the conversation again.

"Well, in much the same way that Sil helped you, we never would have been able to navigate the past if it hadn't been for someone from that time helping us. An intriguing woman, really.” Tom said with a grin. “I did never bring myself to look into what happened to Rain Robinson after we left."

"Wait, did you say _Rain Robinson_?" Chris said slowly, emphasizing the name.

"Yes, why?" Tom's said as his face changed from reminiscence to wonder.

"Well, I may be mistaken, although Rain is a fairly unique name, but I know her." Chris replied.

"You know her, how?" Tom said almost yelling, which seemed to catch everyone’s attention. The Doctor, Sil and Chakotay all moved over towards them.

"Mr. Paris, what is taking you so long to scan our guest?” The Doctor asked and seemed prepared to take over the scans of Chris. “It shouldn’t take you this long to discover the cause of a headache."

"Just a sec Doc, we were talking about something, He says he knows Rain Robinson." Tom said quickly to the Doctor.

"If my memory is correct, isn't that the woman from Earth's past whom we met at the same time I donned the mobile emitter?" the Doctor said and raised a similar scanning device to the one that Tom had been using.

"Yes, that's her, Chris, tell me more, how do you know her?" Tom said eagerly. Chris noticed that Chakotay and Sil had moved to stand quietly to the side and were listening as well.

"She was my astrophysics professor at Caltech.” Chris said watching the expression on Toms face. Chris then had a sudden realization. “In fact, she was who I was with when I was transported away. Perhaps she may have something to do with why I'm here?"

"It would be too much of a coincidence otherwise." Tom said looking over to Chakotay who furrowed his brow in thought.

"I believe there is another part of this mystery to consider.” The Doctor said as he stopped scanning, and lowered his device. “I believe I have found the cause of your headaches."

"You have?" Chris asked rubbing his temple again. "What's causing them?"

"I've discovered an unknown device near the temporal lobe on the left side of your brain." The Doctor said calmly.

Chris knew that to the others he had gone pale. He was not keen on hearing that an unknown device was inside him, let alone in his brain.

“What?” Tom said confused, “I scanned there twice and didn’t detect anything.”

The Doctor moved around the other side of the bed and picked up Tom’s scanning device. He looked at it and nodded his head.

“This tricorder is the one I use to scan Seven and Ichebs non-mechanical physiology. It’s been tuned to filter out most Borg technology as their implants interfere with a lot of the detailed scans of the surrounding tissue.”

“I know that, But why would that--” Tom began to ask.

"The device in question appears to be of Borg design." the hologram interrupted.

Tom and Chakotay exchanged a dire look, but Chris had no idea what anything they were saying really meant. The fact there was a device in his head at all was enough for him to feel dread.

"Chakotay to the Captain," Chakotay said after touching the metal badge on his chest. The chirping sound the badge had made seemed familiar to Chris, but he couldn’t place it.

 _"Janeway here, what is it_ _Commander_ _?"_ _the captains voice replied._

"I think you should come to sickbay, the Doctor's found something interesting. You may consider bringing Seven along too." the commander said.

_"We're on our way. Janeway out."_

"Whats going on?” Sil asked, her expression had turned to worry. She moved closer to the bed where Chris was sitting and looked him in the eyes. "Is it any danger to him?"

"As far as I can tell, other than the headaches, no, but I'm only speculating until I know what the devices exact purpose is." he replied while he continued to scan.

The door to the sickbay opened and Janeway entered followed by a woman with some kind of metal on her right cheek, left brow and her left hand. Chris deduced that this woman must be Seven, but as to if that was her name or some kind of designation or rank was beyond him.

"What have you found Doctor?" the Captain asked as she approached. Seven moved to stand beside Tom who had moved further away. Chris couldn’t help but feel as if Tom was wary of him now for some reason.

"I've found a device in his cerebral cortex, it is the cause of the headaches he's been experiencing. Although I don't know it's true purpose, it appears to be of Borg design." the Doctor repeated for the newcomers.

While Janeway seemed stricken by the Doctors statement, Seven of Nine seemed interested.

"Borg?" Janeway echoed what the doctor had said.

"May I?" Seven asked from beside him. She had moved closer to Chris without him noticing and she had startled him.

"Er...Yes." Chris said hesitantly. Seven picked up another device from the small tray opposite the bed and placed it on his temple where it then stayed in place without any support that he could tell.

"This is a cortical scanner, it will allow us to get a more accurate picture of the device." she explained, and then nodded to the Doctor.

Janeway, Seven, Chakotay and the Doctor then moved over to the curved console in the center of the room. Chris looked past them to see what was being displayed on the screens.  
The shape of the device appeared on the screen and Seven began to analyze it.

"You are correct Doctor, it is a Borg design.” Seven said “It appears to be much like my own Translation matrix. These allow the Borg to communicate with species the collective is about to assimilate, otherwise the message 'you will be assimilated' would never make any sense. However the configuration of this particular implant is unfamiliar to me. It is likely a new design assimilated after I left the collective."

"So that's why you could always understand me." Sil said, who was still standing beside Chris.

"Is there any danger to him?" Janeway asked, unaware that Sil had already voiced her concern before the Captain had arrived.

"No, it is a benign device, it only acts as a translator." Seven said and Chris breathed in relief.

"What about his headaches." Tom asked and again moved closer to Chris. The Lieutenant appeared less wary than he had been before.

"A simple re-calibration will fix that." Seven stated. Chris couldn't help but think her voice sounded cold and calculated as she explained all of this.

"Why didn't the transporters detect it?" Chakotay asked.

Seven continued to analyze the device and its design. "It appears to be coded to mimic biological functions, so any scans that are not looking specifically in that area would most likely assume that it was simply a part of him."

"We detected Borg technology on board the Causality, and now we find even more evidence of Borg involvement." Janeway said as she began to pace, trying to piece it all together.

"Mister Moss, please do not move. I will re-calibrate the device." Seven said as she picked up a medical instrument. Chris sat still as she proceeded to do as she said. While she worked his headache began to fade, and after a moment, was gone.

"The pain is gone, thank you." Chris said as Seven put down the device.

"It should no longer bother you." she said stepping back, she then turned and again strode over to the console that displayed the Borg device.

"Captain, who are these Borg you keep speaking of?" Sil asked. Janeway stopped pacing at this question. She seemed hesitant to answer.

"They are a collective of beings that incorporate technology onto their bodies as they seek perfection. The problem is, as they seek perfection they assimilate other species against their will and force them to join their collective." Janeway explained.

"Assimilate?" Chris asked.

"The Borg remove all individuality from assimilated beings, as such they no longer have a choice in any of their own actions." Seven said bluntly from where she worked.

The room went quiet for a moment, Sil's eyes were wide with horror, and Chris felt the same apprehension.

Seven turned to look at them. "Do not worry, I am no longer a part of the collective, and having experienced reclaiming my individuality, I would not wish assimilation on anyone."

Sil seemed to become less tense, and Chris felt much less apprehensive as well. Of course, he now knew why the Captain had sounded so afraid when the Doctor told her about the Borg device. It was also no longer a wonder as to why Tom had seemed wary when they had discovered the device.

The room suddenly shuddered slightly. It was barely noticeable but everyone seemed to have felt it.

An alarm started to sound and a mans voice sounded from the communication system. _"Red Alert, Captain Janeway to the Bridge."_

Janeway gave a quick glance to everyone present, nodded at Seven and said, "Seven, you stay here and analyze the device further. Chakotay, Paris, your with me."

The three of them quickly left sickbay as the room shuddered again. Seven continued to scan, and the Doctor moved over to Ret and began to scan him.

Sil looked around the room as it slightly shuddered a third time. Chris wondered what was happening, and he knew she was wondering the same thing.

* * *


	22. Like Water Upon Rock

* * *

Janeway stepped out of the turbo lift with Chakotay and Tom behind her.

"Report!" Janeway asked as she moved towards the front of the command platform and faced the viewscreen.

Tom quickly passed her and moved to take his place at conn, which was still a pointless task, but he needed to be at his station nonetheless. Chakotay moved to take his place beside Janeway.

"The Frain are attacking. It appears that Chief of Defense Tok has seen fit to relinquish us of our chance to surrender." Tuvok reported looking up from the tactical station. “There is still approximately nine hours until dawn.”

On the view screen, energy blasts flashed into view. The shots were being fired from both airborne and shore based weapons of multiple configurations. It seemed they were firing every type of weapon they had at them, from hand held to vehicle mounted.

"Their weapons are causing very minimal damage to the shields, which are now down to fifty nine percent." Tuvok said from his station. "Shall we return fire, Captain?"

"Do they pose any immediate threat?" Chakotay asked just as the room shuddered slightly once more.

"If their attack remains constant with the current amount of bombardment, our shields would eventually fall in approximately thirty four hours. However, damage to the hull would begin to occur in approximately eighteen hours." Tuvok said looking over his readouts.

"That's quite a while. Tuvok, hold off returning fire for now.” Janeway said sitting in her command chair. “I think we should give them time to realize they don't pose us much of a threat yet."

"Perhaps we should—" Chakotay began to say as he sat as well.

"Captain! I'm detecting a projectile of some kind, Impact with the shields in five seconds." Harry shouted.

"Brace for impact!" Janeway shouted as the projectile came into view and quickly rocketed towards them.

Upon the projectiles impact with the shields the ship rocked and a panel in front of Tom's station at conn spat sparks into the air.

"Shields at forty two percent." shouted Tuvok. "That was a high yield plasma based warhead."

"Tuvok, target whatever launcher fired that projectile, and destroy it, but do so with the least amount of collateral damage as possible. I don't want any casualties if we can manage it." Janeway ordered. She wouldn't kill anyone over a misunderstanding, especially since Sil seemed to indicate that this entire situation was being caused by one man.

"Aye Captain." Tuvok responded.

On the view screen the streak of _Voyager_ s phasers could be seen streaming forth, it's target located in the distance on the shoreline. The beam started off small and very low yield, and then became thicker and higher yield. After the beam ceased, a small pillar of smoke could be seen rising from the area.

"The launcher has been destroyed." Tuvok stated.

It appeared Tuvok had staggered the energy from the beam so that those at the target could realize what was happening and evacuate.

"No life signs in that area have been harmed." Harry said from Ops.

"Now, target the nearest aircraft, but disable it only." Janeway said. "We need to show them we won't just sit and take this assault."

On the view screen, another phaser beam streaked forth and this time it made contact with one of the attacking aircraft's engines. A stream of smoke began to emit from the damaged aircraft and it began to slowly sink towards the water.

"The aircraft appears to have secondary engines which are keeping it aloft enough to not crash outright." Tuvok reported.

"Good, Tuvok continue targeting aircraft and disabling them at your discretion." Janeway said as she stood and turned to face the tactical officer.

"Aye captain." Tuvok said.

"Seven of Nine to the bridge." the former Borg’s voice came forth from the communication system.

"Go ahead Seven." Janeway said and Chakotay gave her a “ _w_ _hat now”_ glance.

"Captain, Sil has requested she be able to attempt to contact her people and see if they will cease fire."Seven reported.

"Does she think they will listen to her?" Janeway asked. From what Sil had explained, she was a simple intermediary in the science sector of her Government. There was little chance she would have much pull with anyone in the military. And there was zero chance Tok would listen.

"She has stated that it would be better than not trying at all." Seven offered.

"Alright. Harry will open a channel for her when she is ready. Have her use the Doctors station to broadcast." Janeway said pointing to Harry so he would open the channel just as she had said.

"Lets hope she has some success." Chakotay said. "Or we may get to go swimming after all."

* * *

  
  


In sickbay, Sil and Seven of Nine were in the Doctors office which was separated from the rest of the area by a glass wall. Seven had activated a console on the desks top and had motioned for Sil to sit in the chair in front of it.

Out in the main area, Chris had laid down on one of the bio beds as he had said he needed some rest. Ret and the soldier still had yet to regain consciousness. Sil herself was not injured in any way and she did not feel the need to rest at the moment, so she had opted to take action.

She knew that she had to try and convince Tok's men to stop firing, even if she could never convince him. She knew Tok was already too far into his madness to be brought out of it, but perhaps she could reach those who followed his orders.

"The channel is open. We have used your peoples primary communication frequency, so everyone on your planet within its range with the capability will pick it up. To start, all you have to do is push this button." Seven said indicating a panel on the desk.

"I didn't think I would be broadcasting on such a wide signal, but I guess the more who listen the better." Sil said. She was nervous at the prospect of speaking to so many, but she hoped someone would listen. She composed herself for a moment, thought about how to begin, and then pushed the button on the panel.

"My fellow Frain. I am Head of Astero Sciences Sil. I imagine almost all of you have been watching the information broadcasts about the alien craft that has crashed in our capital city's harbor, and you have also been watching as a battle has broken out. I must tell you that the aliens aboard the vessel did not start this conflict."

She looked up slightly as the room shuddered, adding some reality to her statement. She composed herself and continued.

"I am aboard the alien craft as I speak to you now and have met them personally. I know they wish to seek friendship and not hostilities. But that seems now like it may not be possible because a sole Frain has taken it upon himself to start a war against those aboard this craft. This Frain, whom wishes speak for us all through unprovoked violence, is Chief of Defense Tok. The main purpose of Chief of Defense Tok’s position is exactly that, defense. It is not to fire on a vessel of beings who do not wish to fight. So I beg any of you who have the power to stop Tok and his mad quest for destruction, to do so. Please do not let our first contact with another intelligent people be in vain."

She paused for a moment, and looked down at her hands. She knew that her grief, and her remorse at her own peoples actions showed through her expression. She continued without looking back at the monitor.

"Do not let our children live in a future who's past bears such a bloody mark. The crew of this ship are of many different races from many distant planets, for they have sought peace among diversity. Let us seek the same peace, by not turning to war when we can prosper from friendship. They have opened their hands in greeting, shall we not also do so?

She looked up at the monitor again, this time with tears forming in her eyes. She knew what she was about to state would impact her people greatly, and she had not wanted to be the one to impart such information.

"I am sad to report, that our beloved Leader Wro has been murdered. Murdered at the hands of the same Frain who leads this very attack, Tok. Please, do what you know is right and stop this madman. Stop the attack, I beg of you."

Sil knew stating Tok's name publicly without his title was as big as an insult as she could muster, and he would be angered by it. But as far as she was concerned, Leader Wro’s killer deserved no such titles or respect any longer.

Sil wiped her eyes and looked up to nod at Seven that she was done. Seven reached down and disabled the feed for her. For a moment Sil realized that her weepy demeanor had been the last thing her people had seen, and hoped that it hadn’t affected their view of her words in any way.

"That was a great speech." Chris said from the doorway getting her attention. He must have come to listen at some point during her transmission.

"Indeed." Seven agreed.

"Thank you, I just hope I get through to someone." Sil said as she stood and again wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "This whole situation has spoiled my mood."

Chris looked back behind himself and then back to her. "Well, here is something that will cheer you up, I came in to tell you that Ret is woking up.

Sil felt a rush of relief flush through her. She followed Chris and Seven into the main part of sickbay were Ret was just starting to sit up. Her colleague seemed afraid and flinched as the doctor approached him.

"Its alright Ret, he's a friend." Sil reassured him.

Ret noticed her and Chris approaching and took on a look of relief.

"It seems we got out of that mess we were in. But how did we get here.” He asked looking around, and then at Seven and the Doctor. “Wherever here is?"

"We're on the craft that crashed in the harbor. Its called _Voyager_. The beings on this vessel are very hospitable." Sil said reaching out and squeezing Ret’s hand.

The room shuddered and Ret seemed fearful again, but before he could ask anything Chris spoke up.

"Tok is attacking." He said, "Sil just sent a message to your people to see if anyone will help us stop him."

"You'll be happy to know, your friend will be fine, and requires no more treatment, you may all leave sickbay at your leisure." The doctor said moving over toward the soldier who was still unconscious. “This gentlemen however may require some extended treatments. I will keep you informed on his progress.”

"Thank you doctor." Chris said, "Is there somewhere we can go to clean up?."

"I have already taken the consideration of setting up temporary quarters for you all. Seven will you show them there?"

"Yes Doctor, if you will follow me." Seven said turning to leave sickbay. Chris helped Ret off the bio bed and Sil noticed he didn't seem hesitant around Chris anymore.

As they left sickbay, Sil watched as Chris thanked the Doctor once more as they clasped each others hands and moved them up and down. She assumed it was a way humans thanked one another.

"For a hologram, the Doctor is a pretty nice guy." Chris said as they walked down the corridor that lead to the turbo lift.

"Hologram?" Ret asked as they waited for the doors to open.

"Yeah, that's what Tom, one of the other crew members told me." Chris explained.

"They have many wonderful technologies on this ship." Ret said in awe as they neared the turbo lift. As the doors opened to allow them access, Seven turned and addressed them all.

"May I speak with Chris alone for a moment?" she asked.

"I don't see why not." Sil said and looked to the human next to her, seeing that Chris looked as puzzled as she was.

"Please, wait inside the turbo lift a moment." Seven said motioning them to enter, "Computer hold turbo lift at present location, close doors until further notice."

The doors to the turbo lift closed and Ret and Sil were left in the small round space alone. Ret turned to her.

"It seems it is now we who are now out of place among aliens. Chris has found his kind, so perhaps we should ask them if we can leave the ship and return to our people?" he said.

Sil thought over his proposition. She knew and shared his apprehension to stay among aliens, but she also knew she had promised Captain Janeway to help with the mystery involving the Causality.

"You can ask to leave if you wish, but I am staying. I told them that I would help them in anyway I could, and I stick by that promise."

"I see. Well, if you are staying then I suppose I should stay as well. But if the situation goes sour I shall ask to leave, and at that time I beg you to come too." Ret said.

"I do no see any reason to worry, we are—"She began to say, but the doors to the lift opened once more and Seven and Chris entered. Chris looked to be contemplating something and Sil wondered what Seven had said to him?

After Seven commanded their destination to the lift, they began their journey to deck three. Sil noticed that during the transition, Chris seemed preoccupied. She would have to ask him what was going on when Seven wasn't around. When the lift arrived, all four exited and walked down the corridor. Seven stopped in front of a door and it opened.

"You each have your own quarters, this one, and those two over there." Seven said nodding down the corridor as another man approached. "This crewman will wait here in the corridor in case you need any further assistance."

"Thank you Seven." Chris said. “Oh and Seven, about what you said before, I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.

Seven seemed to contemplate his statement, nodded and then she left.

Before Chris entered his room, Sil caught up to him. "Chris, what was that all about?"

Chris looked over towards the crewman who was conversing with Ret about the rooms. He then motioned for her to follow him inside his quarters.

When the doors closed behind them he turned to her. "To be honest, what she said to me took me a little off guard. Apparently she has received a lot of prejudice in the past for being a former Borg. Some races they have encountered have even coveted her implants and attempted to take them by force. So she was warning me that because I have an implant inside of me that could be detected as Borg, that I should prepare myself for similar prejudices.”

“I see.” Sil said and frowned. “These Borg sound terrifying, I can see why there would be prejudice against someone who was one. But at the very least I can promise you that I won’t think of you poorly for it.”

“I wasn’t worried that you would.” Chris said and smiled at her. “It was nice of her to give me a heads up though. In any case, it’s not anything that has to do with our current situation so let’s try and not worry about it. For now I could really use a change of clothes.”

Sil looked down at her blood stained outfit. She couldn’t imagine what she looked like at the moment, but it was likely a fright to be sure.

“Yes, I should do the same, I’ll let you get to it.” Sil said as she turned to leave.

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit. Don't go too far. You're the only thing here that makes me feel at ease."

Sil turned and met his gaze until the doors closed again. She smiled and then she entered her own quarters so that she could get cleaned up.

* * *


	23. Fury

* * *

Tok leaned back and touched the back of his hand to wound on his face, which itched unbearably. In all his years of military service, none of the injuries he had procured had affected him as emotionally as this one did. Perhaps it was that his injury was one sustained at the hands of an alien, or that he was angry at himself for miscalculating the ability of one called Chris.

When he had first laid eyes on the sand colored alien, he had seen a weak and meager creature. The fool had been all talk, trying to bluff his way out of the situation and not using force at all. Because of this, during the exchange of fire in the cell block he hadn't even considered the alien would be able to be so accurate with a weapon of Frain design.

No. It must have been a lucky shot. That could be the only explanation.

Tok looked toward the wall where a display showed the progress of the attack on the alien craft, _Voyager_.

Although four Scavengers had been downed and two launchers were destroyed, his technicians had informed him that the power output of the aliens barrier had dropped significantly after the initial attack. Tok took this as a sign they had done some damage, and he smiled at that.

Beside the display of the attack was a screen that showed a repeating recording of the broadcast that the traitor Sil had made. The information broadcast were showing the footage over and over while discussing the implications. Tok had muted it, having heard enough.

Tok looked to his left where his second in command now stood in front of the desk. The subservient officer was also viewing the data being displayed, but Tok couldn’t help but notice that he kept glancing over at Sil’s broadcast.

This particular man had been put into Tok’s command structure by committee when the Protectorate had been formed. Much was true with most of the military, as after the unification of the Frain people, all of the old faction command structures had been tossed out.

"Sir, shall I order a cease fire? "His second asked, "At this point, it’s likely that Sil's broadcast has been seen by the entire population, even with as early as it is in the morning."

"Cease fire?" Tok said angrily losing his smile, "Why stop the attack? Sil is under the influence of an invading alien force and our people are too smart to fall into her lies. We will continue the attack!"

"And, If she's telling the truth about the aliens not wanting conflict? After all, what she said about Leader Wro death was true after all." His second offered.

"I will hear no such nonsense coming from you!" Tok shouted standing to his feet. He began to feel as if his second was losing sight of the purpose they had, the reason they had to fight. "Shall I relieve you of your duty, or will you follow my orders and continue the assault?"

His second stood quietly for a moment and then flatly said, "The aliens seem to have reacted in defense only, and all of their actions also seem to be coordinated so that no one is hurt. I'm sorry sir, but I can not be party to these actions, so I hereby resign as your second in command and ask for reassignment."

Tok stared into the eyes of his delinquent soldier and then said, "I'm sorry, but I cant allow you to not be with me."

Tok quickly reached into the desk before him and withdrew the pulse pistol he had place inside earlier. Hethen proceeded to aim the weapon at his former second.

Many times in his past, Tok had been forced to weed out the bad seeds in his command, but until this moment, he had never felt the need to remove one by force, directly.

"You wouldn't ...kill me." the delinquent soldier stuttered as he stepped back away from him.

"I would, and will." Tok said, and did.

Tok lowered the weapon and looked down at the body of his former second. He was dead and Tok wouldn't have had it any other way. It was the death any traitor deserved.

And Sil would be next.

* * *

  
  


Janeway smiled at Tuvok’s accuracy. Her tactical officer had successfully disabled four of the attacking fighters and destroyed another launcher before it had become a threat, all without harming anyone. The battle, if she could call it that, was still in process but the incoming fire had slowed to a few random occasional shots from the shore.

"Captain, it seems they are deciding on how to proceed. From the communiques I'm intercepting and the broadcasts from their news reports, it look's as if the Frain are reacting to Sil's claims that leader Wro was murdered." Harry said from ops.

"Good, she was able to get through to them.” Chakotay said as he moved to stand beside Janeway. “Perhaps Tok will be run out of power."

"Captain, There is planet wide broadcast in progress. I think you should see this." Harry added.

"Put it on screen." Janeway said sitting in her chair.

The view screen changed from the slowing Frain assault to the face of a Frain woman. Behind the woman a crowd was gathered and we're shouting something.

"Head Information gatherer Zea reporting as it happens, We are here at the central government hall where the report of Leader Wro's assassination at the hands of Chief of Defense Tok has led to a crowd of civilian protesters demanding Tok come forward. Some of the protesters have brought improvised weapons and are demanding justice for the death of the Leader. While no proof to his death has been found beyond the statements by Head of Astero Sciences Sil, his absence from the public eye during this crisis has created an uproar all throughout the system."

Behind the reporter, a Frain man in uniform holding a weapon fired into the air and everyone around him but the reporter and her camera operator scattered. The uniformed Frain noticed the reporter and moved over to her and looked directly into the recorder.

"I am Thirteenth in Civil Security, Yor.” He said as he ignored the reporters attempts to be in the shot as well. “Things here are escalating out of control. I do not know if Head of Astero Sciences Sil can hear this broadcast, but many are demanding she come before this crowd and state her claim in person. And if those aboard the vessel in the harbor are indeed seeking friendship as Sil claims, then they should come forward to state their intentions as well. In this time, we need action. Without our appointed Leader many will fear the collapse of the unified Frain Protectorate and the panic may lead to rioting."

The screen flickered and then went blank.

"That's it, the tower they were broadcasting from was just destroyed, it seems that security officer was right, I'm picking up reports of riots all over the planet." Harry reported.

"It seems we are no longer the main topic of conversation. Their government is collapsing, partly in due to our arrival." Chakotay said as he sat down.

"We need to do something." Janeway said. "We can't let ourselves become the cause of social collapse on this planet. Harry save that broadcast and send it to Sil's quarters. I'll head down to inform her as to what has happened."

"Yes ma'am" Harry replied as she entered the turbo lift.

Janeway waited for the lift to arrive at her requested destination and then exited on deck three. There in the corridor she saw Ensign Vorhees standing outside Ret's quarters talking to Frain man.

"Ensign, Will you please get Mr. Moss and have him meet us in Sil's quarters." Janeway ordered and nodded to Ret as she motioned towards Sil's door. "There is something we need to discuss. Please, after you."

Janeway chimed Sil's door and after a moment Sil's voice came from the speaker, _"You may enter."_

The doors opened and as they entered Chris and Vorhees appeared behind them and entered as well. Janeway nodded to Vorhees and he exited to stand just outside the door.

The Captain looked at the two Frain and human who moved to sit across from her on the couch that lined the wall. It had been two hours since they had been given quarters and they now looked clean and rested. They had even changed into standard starfleet civilian clothing.

"I hope you all found everything you needed." Janeway stated courteously.

"Oh yes, Ensign Vorhees was kind enough to show us everything our quarters had to offer." Chris said as he leaned back and got comfortable on the couch.

"The ship has stopped shuddering, has the attack ceased?" Ret asked.

Sil appeared to look at Ret scornfully. Perhaps Sil felt it unnecessary to jump right into business. Janeway however felt it was a good thing he had, because she wanted to get right to the point.

"To be blunt, it seems we are no longer the most important issue among your people. While we are part of the problem, it seems your government is collapsing and riots are breaking out all throughout your system. Tok has caused quite a stir by killing your leader." Janeway said.

"It’s no wonder.” Sil said solemnly, "As I said before, our people have only just recently unified under one government. Leader Wro had been a huge part of that unification."

“It wouldn’t be a wonder if the Mellos Faction took this opportunity to rise up and try to secede. They hadn’t been keep on the Protectorate to begin with.” Ret said to Sil.

“Let’s hope we can figure this all out before that happens.” Sil said and then looked to Janeway. “What exactly is happening currently?”

"We intercepted one of your peoples information broadcasts. Perhaps watching it will explain the situation better." Janeway said as she stood and moved over to the computer to activate it.

Sil and Ret watched and listened to the whole broadcast, while Chris only listened and seemed preoccupied by his own thoughts.

"Captain, If they wish me to speak in person I must. It’s my duty to do what I can." Sil urgently said standing to her feet after the broadcast finished.

"They did ask for us to be there as well, so I will go and assist you," Janeway said, "Chris, will you accompany us? You did witness Wro's murder after all."

"Yes captain, I feel partly responsible for all of this, I'm not sure how but I feel my presence here has been the root of all these troubles." Chris said rubbing the back of his neck as he stood.

"You had no way of preventing any of this, blaming yourself is unwarranted." Sil said reassuringly.

"I agree, you came to be here by no action of your own. And the mystery as to how you arrived here can only be solved if we all work together." Janeway said.

Ret stood, joining everyone else who had already opted to stand. "I will go as well. We can all stand together, perhaps that sight will bring our people some much needed calm."

Janeway nodded in agreement and motioned to the door.

* * *


	24. Entity

* * *

A frustrated Captain Janeway stood in the center of transporter room two. To her right, Harry Kim was at the controls with B'Elanna beside him and they were both reading over the display. The chief engineer looked up at Janeway and shook her head.

Earlier, B’Elanna had reported to Janeway that transporting Mr. Moss and the Three Frain had taxed the Delta Flyers transporters. Something about the way they had tried to tie the Flyers transporter systems into Voyagers had strained them. So now the only option was to use _Voyager’s_ transporters on their own _,_ but those system were still inhabited by the entity.

Janeway knew that cutting the system off from the rest of the ship had been the right choice, but on the other hand it had hindered them greatly. They needed to get to the government center in the nearby city, and with the shuttle bay underwater, there were no other options.

"Its no use captain, the entity is still in the pattern buffer." B'Elanna said, crossing her arms. "We won't be able to use any of the ships transporters unless we can get it out of there somehow."

"Entity?" Chris asked. Janeway looked up over at the human and his two Frain companions. Chris was leaning against the far wall, beside him Sil and Ret were talking quietly about the state of their civilization. Janeway knew that these three were the only hope to stopping the catastrophic societal events happening on the planet and she had no way to get them where they needed to be.

"When we passed through the energy field surrounding this system, a type of life form made of chroniton energy entered into our ship's systems.” Janeway explained. “Any system it inhabits malfunction temporarily, so it is currently preventing the use of our transporters."

"I've been meaning to ask you about the field captain. By what means did you pass through it?” Sil asked. “All the vessels that have tried to from this side have been destroyed."

"I’m not really sure I have an answer for you. We hadn't even detected the field until we collided with it, and before passing through it, this system was no where in our direct path." Janeway explained.

Behind them the console in front of Harry and B'Elanna beeped.

"Captain, the entity’s energy field is fluctuating.” B'Elanna exclaimed. “I believe it is attempting to activate the transporter!"

The room was filled with the whine of the transporter as the sound grew very loud and extremely sharp. So loud in fact that everyone in the room covered their ears. For a moment more the sound continued to grow louder and louder, but then the lights in the room dimmed slightly and the sound shifted to a deep hum.

"It's and overload!" B'Elanna yelled over the humming which began to lessen as some of the excess power began draining from the buffer system.

Janeway turned to face the pad of the transporter to see what was happening and was surprised to see the form of a humanoid being slowly materialized. Chris moved beside her and stared in horror as if he was seeing a ghost.

"Tobias..." Chris gasped out. Janeway had almost not been able to make out what he had said over all of the noise.

"The system is crashing! Whoever it is, they're only partly formed!" Harry yelled seconds before sparks spat from the front of the transporter pad. Janeway shoved Chris out of the way of the electric explosion and they both hit the ground hard. The loud sound ceased almost immediately.

Before the smoke had cleared Janeway was already standing again and had rushed over to the pad.

In the center lay a partly formed man. His upper body was deformed and his lower body was nonexistent below his rib cage. She quickly knelt when she saw an eyelid open which indicated that they were somehow still alive.

“Janeway to the Doctor, Medical emergency in transporter room two.” Janeway called out after tapping her comm-badge. There was little chance that this person could be saved, but she knew that they had to try.

"Help...me..." The disfigured man said gasping between words.

"I don't know how," Janeway said peering into his one fully formed eye.

" _Help me please_!" he said again, but to her surprise she didn't see his mouth move. " _I can't feel my body_!"

"You're a telepath." Janeway whispered in realization. She opened her mind to him and spoke within herself so he could understand her. " _I am afraid that_ y _ou are going to die. Please, while you still can, tell us who you are and wh_ _ _y you are here__ _._ "

The eye she peered into closed for a moment and then reopened, its new focus was behind Janeway. She turned to see that he was gazing at Chris who stood silently at the edge of the pad staring back intently.

 _"_ _He... the mission._ _" his voice spoke inside her head. “_ _..._ _Anchor_ _..._ _Paradox_ _._ _”_

Janeway looked back into the telepath's eye. He had refocused on her.

" _What_ _was_ _the_ _mission_ _?"_ _Janeway thought._

The form on the pad started to quiver and she realized that his body functions must have begun to fail. He gasped and look hard into Janeway's eyes. _"_ _The_ _Frain_ _..._ _are_ _the_ _key_ _._ _ _They__ _..._ _can_ _stop_ _the_ _enemy_ _._ _"_

Janeway closed her eyes and concentrated, _"_ _ _Who is the enemy__ _?"_

 _"_ _ _The commander… he knew__ _ _.”__ _The voice rang in her head, but it began to fade. “_ _ _You must...stop them… stop the cycle.__ _"_

Janeway opened her eyes, and stared at the form in front of her. His eye were closed and his body had stopped quaking. There was no life left in him.

"He's dead." she said softly over her shoulder.

“What a horrible way to die.” Sil said putting her hand over her mouth.

"Tobias..." Chris said from behind her. "Why did you bring me here..."

"Do you know this man?" Janeway asked as she stood and faced the motionless Chris.

"No, but… somehow... I had a dream about him." he said.

Janeway looked back at the dead telepath. What had formed looked human, but judging from the telepathy and the deep black iris in his eye, she guessed he was a Batazoid. She knew that Batazoids could transfer thoughts, even subconsciously, so perhaps at some point the man had given Chris some of his thoughts or memories. But to what end exactly?

“Is there anything else you can tell me about him, or his mission?” Janeway asked.

“I’m afraid not, captain.” Christopher said and then rubbed the temple on the right side of his head. Janeway noticed that he was still looking at the one he had called Tobias and the fist of his other hand was clenched.

The doors behind Janeway opened and the Doctor entered. The Doctor knelt beside the half formed body and started to scan. The hologram looked up at Janeway, shook his head and then used his comm-badge to request a stretcher be brought to him. He then began to scan again.

"Chris, what exactly did you see in this dream?" Janeway asked as she once again turned to face Chris. This time Chris met her gaze and then closed his eyes as if to visualize the memory.

"I was on a planet named Batazed, wherever that is. I was seeing everything from Tobias’s perspective. He was in his home talking to his wife and daughter, although at points, their voices just materialized out of nowhere without talking. Honestly it didn't make much sense to me."

"Batazed is a planet of telepaths, it is probably how you have some of his memories, he must have given them to you for some reason. What happened next?" Janeway asked.

"The room shook, and I, ... I mean Tobias, was on his back in the rubble. It was an attack and everything was burning." Chris said and started to shake. Behind him, Sil saw his discomfort and moved closer to him where she then took his hand in her own. He looked at her slowly then back at Janeway. "There were ships in the sky. Huge, massive, all Tobias could say was... monsters."

Christopher looked again at Tobias’s body and Janeway looked to match his focus. It was then that she really took the time to look at Tobias's torn uniform. It was a uniform that seemed to fit starfleets standards of style, however she also knew that it was unlike any in starfleet history. He even had a comm-badge of sorts, but the symbol on his left lapel was unfamiliar to her. It was that of a circle with a line splitting through it at a skewed angle, and there in the left quadrant of the split was a single star.

"Because of the fact nothing like what you are describing has ever happened on Batazed, I assume he must have been part of the Causality crew, and was likely from the future." she said looking back to Chris.

"It's happened, or it's going to happen... I know it." Christopher replied. She could see a tear in his eye. "I can feel it inside me, like I was there."

Without a word more, Chris turned and moved to the back of the transporter room, closely followed by Sil who was still holding his hand in an effort to comfort him.

Janeway shook her head. Nothing was making sense. She had a person from the past, a ship that was from the future, and possible Borg involvement. And then there was the field around this system that was made up of the same energy that the entity had been. But the entity had been a Betazoid man the whole time. Was it possible that this Tobias had been trapped inside the field itself somehow?

Janeway frowned and looked over at Harry and B’Elanna who were looking at the damaged transporter pad. B’Elanna noticed her gaze and stood to face her.

"Captain, the transporter system is back in normal working order, but you will have to use transporter room one as this pad will need to be repaired." B'Elanna offered and then went back to work after Janeway nodded to her in acknowledgment.

Janeway looked around the room at everything that was happening. Everyone there seemed to be lost in their own thoughts or busy doing their jobs. Except Ret who was simply standing in place and watching everyone else, like Janeway was. Ret took notice that she had looked toward him and he moved over to her with a serious look on his face.

"Captain, I'm not sure if this has anything to do with what's going on, but before Leader Wro and I rescued Sil and Chris from the holding cells, I had received a report from one of my researchers. It was about the Progenitor Field around our system, apparently it had reduced in size when you passed through it." he told her, then he shook his head, "I would have said something sooner, but with everything that's been happening, I just forgot."

"It's alright Ret. You say it shrank?" Janeway asked him seeking more clarification.

"Yes, satellite scans definitely showed that the space our planetary system occupies was point zero five percent smaller than it had been beforehand." He explained. "The field has been a constant size for as long as we could scan it, so clearly something has changed.

Janeway tapped her comm-badge.

"Janeway to Seven of Nine.”

“ _Yes Captain_?” seven’s voice replied.

“Run a complete scan of the Progenitor Field and the space within and compare it to the original scans we took when we first arrived. Look for anything that differs and report back to me."

" _Understood_." Seven replied and the channel closed.

On the transporter pad the Doctor and two ensigns had finished placing the corpse on the stretcher he had requested and were about to move it out of the room when Chris suddenly stepped forward.

"Wait!" he cried, his voice cracking slightly.

The Doctor and his entourage stopped and looked at him. For that matter so did everyone else in the room.

Chris released Sil's hand and slowly walked over to the body which was now covered in a blue sheet. He gently placed his hand on the sheet and closed his eyes.

"Rest in peace friend... I will do my best to do what I was brought here for." He said, then he lifted his hand and looked directly at the wall in front of him, "Whatever it is that I'm supposed to do..."

He then nodded to the Doctor who nodded back and continued out the door followed by the ensigns carrying the stretcher.

"Chris..." Sil whispered from behind him, "Are you going to be okay?"

Chris turned and looked around the room at all the faces now watching him. He seemed very collected now.

"I feel as if I have lost a friend that I never had the chance to meet. But I'm ready." he said calmly, pain registering more in his eye's than on his face.

"Ready for what?" Ret asked.

"For whatever lay ahead." he replied.

Janeway saw that while he had pain there, there was no longer any uncertainty in his eyes.

* * *


	25. A Broadcasters Dream

* * *

Chakotay, Harry and Tom were on the bridge watching a Frain news broadcast on the main view-screen. About twenty minutes before, Harry had returned from the transporter room and sent a text only message to the Frain about their intentions to beam their group to the Government Center. Shortly thereafter, Ensign Kim had been able to re-establish a connection with the news broadcast's being transmitted by the Frain. Apparently when the news of the aliens planned appearance had been announced the riots on the planet had come to an abrupt standstill. Chakotay imagined that every Frain who had a screen was currently watching it, as this would likely a big day in their history.

On the screen was the same Frain woman who had been reporting during the last broadcast they had intercepted. She was tall, slender and very beautiful.

Tom turned and looked back at Harry and made a motion towards the screen.

"There you go Harry. She's not a Borg, a hologram, the wrong twin, dead, or a psychopathic racer. Maybe you can ask her out on a date?"

"Very funny," Harry said. "Just be quiet so we can hear the broadcast."

Chakotay smiled to himself. It was refreshing to hear such banter, even with the dire situation they were in. He focused again on the woman on the screen as she began to report on what was happening behind her.

"Head Information Gatherer Zea reporting as it happens from the Government Center.” the reporter began. “As you can see behind me, the central square is more crowded than it has ever been, likely even more crowded than it was during the unification ceremony ten solar passes ago. Everyone present is standing shoulder to shoulder waiting for the arrival of the aliens and Head of Astero Sciences Sil.”

“According to my sources, the security force here has received confirmation that the beings from the craft in the harbor will be arriving soon.” Zea continued and pointed towards one of the nearby buildings. “They have also stated that no one is to stand at the top of the stairs that lead into to the Government Center building. There has also been word that Chief of Defense Tok has been seen in Leader Wro's office inside the Government Center building. There have been whispers that Chief of Defense Tok has even killed one of his own officers. This of course adds to the credence Head of Astero Sciences Sils accusations of Chief of Defense Tok's murder of Leader Wro."

Chakotay couldn’t help but notice the specific nature of how Zea was using everyone's job titles each time she talked about them. Perhaps the Frain had a very stringent way of speaking about another individual. He would have to ask Sil about it later as they would need to make sure they were following the proper customs when interacting with the Frain.

On the screen, there was a stirring and murmuring in the crowd that caught Zea’s attention.

"It appears there is something happening at the top of the steps. A blue light, and shimmering." she reported as the camera focused on the forms being materialized.

As Captain Janeway, Chris, Sil and Ret finished being transported in, the crowd became frightened, excited and agitated and started to talk among themselves.

Chakotay began to grind his teeth together. He had wanted to send Tuvok or another security officer along with the Captain for safety’s sake, but she had said she could handle it. He knew she was probably right but he couldn't help but worry. The sheer number of Frain in the square made the chances of things going badly just that much more possible

"It appears that Head of Astero Sciences Sil has arrived by some unknown means, perhaps a technology of the aliens who are now standing beside her. It appears that Head of Sciences Ret is also with them." Zea said looking into the camera which had refocused on her when she had begun to speak again, she then made a motion for whoever was holding the camera to focus on the new arrivals rather than herself. "It appears the aliens have the same body structure that we have, yet many of their other features are quite strange."

"Who is she calling strange?" Tom said with a grin.

"You have to remember Tom, they've never seen another intelligent species like themselves before. Maybe you should have gone and they wouldn't have been as surprised." Harry said. Chakotay couldn't help but silently chuckle at the jest.

On the screen the camera was zoomed in on Janeway, and Zea was explaining her physical features for any Frain who was listening to the broadcast rather than watching it.

"This one appears to be rather short, but appears female, and the one beside her appears to be male, yet he is taller." Zea said sounding awestruck,"Their skin appears to be a sort of pasty sand color. And their hair is very oddly colored indeed, almost rebellious by our standards."

The camera zoomed out to show the entire party standing at the top of the stair. Chakotay could see that the four who had beamed in were all standing still to allow the crowd time to acclimate to their presence. After a moment or two more, Sil stepped forward.

"It seems Head of Astero Sciences Sil is about to say something. Let us listen." Zea said and with that the camera zoomed in on Sil. Chakotay noticed that Sil seemed calm and ready to speak to her fellow Frain. He admired her strength in this situation.

Sil raised her hand above her head and then slowly brought it down in front of her. After a quick pause she then pulled her extended hand towards her slowly. The massive crowd hushed almost immediately in reaction to her motions.

"I am Head of Astero Sciences Sil. I have come here to make my claim in person that Head of Defense Tok has murdered Leader Wro."

The crowd became agitated once more and some shouting was heard, although Chakotay couldn't tell what exactly was being shouted.

"Please listen and bear witness. Here beside me stand new friends who have come from beyond the Progenitor Field. I shall tell you however that in truth they have come to be here by accident, yet they still have intentions to become friends with us. Even now, after Tok willfully attacked them without provocation, they still stand ready to meet as equals in peaceful interaction. I feel ashamed that the first interaction with those from beyond our world was a hostile one because of one irrational individual." She stated.

Again the crowd began to stir, but they seemed in favor of what Sil was saying. She continued after another moment. "I would like to introduce two of them to you now." Sil said moving to stand beside Janeway. "This female, is the captain of the vessel which has come to sit in our harbor. The vessel is called _Voyager_ and her name is Captain Kathryn Janeway."

The crowd started to murmur once more, apparently something about the captains name was interesting. On top of the title call outs, Chakotay also now realized that Sil, Tok, Wro and Ret all had extremely short names. Again, he wondered as to why that was, and if it had some kind of cultural significance.

"Next I wish to introduce someone who has shown me nothing but kindness and trust since the moment I met him. His name is Christopher Moss."

The bridge crew watched as Sil continued on. She explained how Chris had been on the ship that had crashed on the planet long ago. She spoke of how Tok had been keeping that same ship a secret from the people of Fra. She regaled the crowd with how Ret had come with Wro to find them in the cells, and Janeway and Chris exchanged glances when Sil mentioned being transported to _Voyager_ from that same cell block. Sil spoke ever onward and the crowd listened, amazed at the events being told. At one point the crowd even cheered when Sil mentioned the speech she had made over the broadcasts. Chakotay assumed the crowd had now accepted her claim as the truth and she was quickly becoming an iconic figure all throughout their civilization.

"Now that you all know of what has transpired, Captain Janeway, if you would like to address the planet and our off-world outposts, we would be honored." Sil said stepping back.

Janeway didn't looked phased about speaking to what Sil had told them was almost ten billion Frain. She stepped forward.

"On behalf of the Federation of Planets, I, Captain Kathryn Janeway, open our hands to you the people of the planet Fra in hopes of friendship. As you have been told by Head of Astero Sciences Sil, we are a long way from home. But that doesn't mean we still can't make friends with those we encounter."

Janeway let the crowd take in what she had said, and then continued. "Again I would like to say that we come in peace and we would be grateful if the attacks on our vessel would cease."

The crowd seemed to be taking it all very well, and seemed to agree on everything that was being said. Chakotay was pleased that things were going so smoothly. However, just as soon as he had the thought, the camera suddenly jutted to the left and zoomed out again. Reporter Zea's face appeared on the screen once more and she seemed utterly excited about something.

"It appears Tok has just arrived!" said the exuberant reporter.

The camera then quickly fumbled and rotated to a door on the side of the building to the right of where Janeway and everyone in their party stood. After the image steadied, Chakotay could see Tok had indeed arrived.

"This should be interesting." Tom said.

"Harry, keep and open channel with the transporter room. I want to be able to get them out of there at the first sign of trouble." Chakotay ordered.

Even thought the captain hadn't wanted Tuvok to accompany her, Chakotay instead had insisted Tuvok be the one to man the transporter controls. The Vulcan had the quickest reaction time out of all of them, besides of course, Seven or Icheb.

"Yes, Commander." Ensign Kim replied.

On the screen, Tok exited the open doorway and slowly walked towards Sil, who was closest to him. Behind him were two Frain soldiers with weapons.

The crowed began to shout things at Tok. Almost all of the remarks were derogatory, but the military man appeared to ignore them. Tok came to a halt and slowly scanned the large crowd and then the group on the steps to his left. After a moment when his focus fell on Chris, he squinted angrily.

Tok started to speak without any kind of courteous gesture to the crowd like Sil had given, but they still quickly quieted and became hushed once more so that they could hear him.

"So Sil, you bring our enemy here to the heart of our Government Center. It seems you are even more a traitor than I first thought." the short-statured Frain said in disgust.

"They are not our enemies Tok." Sil said stepping closer to him. It was a defiant move on her part Chakotay imagined, but she seemed intent on making a stand then and there.

"I beg to differ, why else would they come here?" Tok said angrily. "Why do you think their vessel is equipped with such destructive weaponry?"

"Our weapons were used for defensive purposes only." Janeway said appealing to the crowd. Then she faced Tok, "It was you who fired upon us. And when we did fire back to defend ourselves, we made sure not to harm anyone."

"Ha! A likely story to get the planets population to think you are on their side until you have the chance to strike." he replied and then waved his arm over the crowd and addressed them. "Look at you all! You are buying into their ruse!"

"You killed Leader Wro." Sil said abruptly.

The crowd turned their attention to Tok and he turned and glared at Sil. Then he smiled which was a strange change of attitude with what she had just said, "Yes, I did. I freely admit I killed a traitor."

The crowd became upset and began to yell. Next it was Chris stepped forward and held up his hands to try and quite the crowd. He was only partially successful, but he began to speak anyway. "Tok killed Leader Wro while he was reaching his hand to me in friendship. I was with your Leader as he died, and his last words were to condemn Tok, who is the real traitor to your people here."

Tok seemed angered by the fact that Chris had said he was a traitor and he pulled his weapon and aimed it at him. Chris took notice of this and turned to face Tok. He stood defiantly, not showing any fear.

"If you shoot me you only prove your guilt further. I stand here unarmed offering no threat to anyone. All you want is conflict, and from what I understand the unification of the Frain people lowered the chance for conflict here to almost nothing. And without conflict your position in this government becomes useless. This is why you are afraid of peace." Chris said with an air of wisdom Chakotay wouldn't have expected from him.

Everyone in the crowd took Chris's point to heart and started to yell at Tok who still seemed ready to fire. And from how Chris was standing, he looked as if he would stand and take the shot without even trying to dodge it.

"Tuvok, get him out of there!" Chakotay said jumping to his feet.

There was a flash on the view screen and a few screams were heard as the crowd began to scatter. It appeared that the camera person and Zea had stood their ground amidst all of the commotion and continued to transmit. It could be seen that Tok's plasma bolt had intersected the wall behind where Chris had been standing. It looked like he had dematerialized just in time.

Janeway was quick on her feet and had already disarmed Tok with a quick blow to his hand. The two Frain with weapons behind Tok quickly raised them and aimed at Sil and Ret. The Captain quickly took notice of this and stopped her struggle with Tok.

"Very smart Captain, Now... where did that one who scarred my face go?" Tok said picking up his weapon an aiming it at Janeway.

"Exactly where you're about to go." Janeway said nodding to the reporter. Confused Tok looked directly into the Information Gather's camera, his eye's growing wide as he realized what was about to happen.

"You heard her Tuvok, transport him." Chakotay said understanding fully what she meant."

On the screen, Tok faded into transporter nothingness as Janeway watched him disappear. The two soldiers who had protected him also watched him vanish and must have feared for their own lives because they turned and ran out of sight.

Zea's face appeared again on the screen.

"It appears that Tok has been taken out of our hands by the aliens. Lets see if we can get a word with the Captain."

Zea ran up the steps being followed by the camera.

"Captain, please tell us, what will you do with Tok?"

Janeway apparently realized that she was still on camera and made an involuntary move to fix a strand of her hair. Chakotay knew the action well after seven years of being her first officer.

"We will hold him for you until such time that you feel you wish to bring him to justice yourselves under your laws." Janeway replied.

"The people of Fra are probably wondering what you will do next." Zea prompted.

Janeway looked to Sil and then said "We hope to repair our vessel and after that, only time will tell."

Zea moved over to Sil and Ret could be seen standing behind her on screen. "Head of Astero Sciences Sil, what are your plans now? With our Leader gone the people will be looking to elect a new one. Would you consider running for this position?"

"That reporter sure is curious and full of questions." Tom said, "Are you sure she's not for you Harry?"

Harry smiled but continued to work at his console.

Chakotay sat again in the command chair and continued to watch the broadcast now that things had settled down.

"I do not feel I would adequately fill the job requirements." Sil replied to Zea's question. "Also, right now, I am currently helping our new friends from the Federation solve a bit of a mystery."

"Oh, a mystery! Can you clarify?" Zea requested eagerly.

"I will do so in time, but for now I think we should return to the _Voyager_. Head of Sciences Ret will gladly stay and answer your questions." Sil said motioning to him.

Ret came into view and he nodded to Sil. He then began to answer Zea's questions.

After Sil had moved off camera the hum of the transporter beaming Janeway and Sil back to _Voyager_ could be heard. The camera quickly turned to try and catch a glimpse of them disappearing but all that could be seen was the aftereffect of the transporter. The camera focused again on Zea.

"Simply amazing!" she said, all the while beaming a smile.

* * *


	26. Collapse

* * *

Ten minutes after stepping off the transporter pad back on Voyager, Janeway was standing before a fuming Tok who was sitting in his cell in the brig. Apparently he had struggled with security all the way from the transporter room, but his smaller height made it easy for them to deal with him. They would have beamed him directly to his cell but the site-to-site transporter buffer had been damaged when Tobias had overloaded the system.

Tok looked up and noticed Janeway. He all but growled at her as he jumped to his feet.

"You have no right to hold me here!" Tok yelled as loud as his lungs would allow him, "I suggest you release me captain! My men will not allow this, you will be destroyed!"

"Actually, we've received word from Ret that your highest ranking officers have taken command of the military and have asked us to hold you until you can be tried for treason, and two accounts of murder."

Tok's eyes widened, he then slowly sat and looked up at her. His short height made him seem even smaller when he sat, but Janeway was surprised someone of such small stature could contain so much pure hatred.

"So you have succeeded, your people will invade this unsuspecting world without any resistance." he said after a moment of looking at his hands which he held before him, his palms facing the ceiling. He seemed almost calm all of a sudden.

"Tok, as we told you before we are not invaders." Janeway said shaking her head, "but if you wish to believe it then go right ahead. You can do whatever you want behind this force field. It matters very little to me."

Again Tok looked up at her and made a look of sheer hate that contrasted even more from his calm expression with the scar Chris had given him.

"I will get out of here and kill you all, and leave that damned alien who scarred me for last!" Tok said pointing to his gray discolored face which now had a hint of blue where the scar and bruises were starting to bleed again.

"I'm sure we can actually heal that for you. Our medical technology is a bit more advanced than yours." Janeway offered, she thought that at this point all she could do was to try and lower Tok's hate and fear of them.

"You keep your hands off me!" Tok yelled and leaned back seeming almost frightened, "I won't be experimented on!"

Janeway again shook her head, Tok was being extremely paranoid. She didn't even feel safe with him behind the force field. His anger seemed to transmit beyond the field and engulf her. She stepped away from the cell and was about to leave the brig when Seven entered.

"Captain, as you requested I have run a comparison scan of the chroniton field surrounding this system with our previous scan." said Seven as she held out her hand and offered Janeway a PADD. “It appears you were right to have me run it.”

"What have you found?" Janeway asked looking over the compiled data. On the little screen an image of the Frain system was being displayed.

"It appears to have decreased in size three point six percent since we last scanned it." Seven said calmly putting her hands behind her back, "the only conclusion I can come to is that the field is collapsing in on itself."

Janeway hated bad news but she kept her cool the best she could even if it was in front of one of her least emotional crew members, "How much time until the field wall reaches Fra?"

"Approximately fifteen and a half hours." Seven said tilting her head in her usual manor.

"What will happen when it intersects the planet?" Janeway asked dreading the answer.

"As of yet I am unsure, however, Sil did say that anything that had tried to exit from this side of the field had been summarily destroyed."

Janeway turned and looked again at the cell Tok occupied. The ousted military man was walking back and forth angrily.

She turned back to Seven and thought to herself. Everyone on Voyager were her friends, as well as her family, and she needed to get them out of this situation, all of them. Even the people of Fra would need to be saved from this oncoming calamity. But everything seemed to be working against them, especially time.

"Any suggestions?" Janeway asked.

Seven glanced quickly at the PADD in Janeway’s hand and then looked up to face her again.

"I have hypothesized that the crashed ship in the possession of the Frain is linked to the fields presence and perhaps even offers and explanation as to why the field is now collapsing." Seven replied.

"Are you saying we didn't cause the fields collapse?" Janeway asked crossing her arms in front of her.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. As of yet it is uncertain, but it is possible that if the ship was indeed creating the field, that we had an effect on the ships systems when we passed through it. Or the collapse could have begun when the power on the Causality, as Sil called it, began to fail." Seven hypothesized further.

"Has its power systems failed completely?" Janeway asked starting towards the door with Seven following her out into the corridor.

"According to sensors, main power aboard the Causality has failed. Its engine core however appears to still be producing a reaction, perhaps due to some kind of perpetual motion or energy cascade system. However it is slowly losing its cohesion." Seven reported.

"We're going to that ship. I'll contact the Frain and let them know our intentions." Janeway said as she entered the Turbo lift.

"I shall accompany the away team and study the Borg components on board." Seven offered.

Janeway nodded to Seven in agreement then gave her command to the turbo lift.

"Bridge."

* * *

  
  


Chris sat alone in the corner of _Voyager_ s deck two mess hall looking out over the hull of _Voyager_ which seemed to luminescence as it sat quietly surrounded by the rippling water.

Even though it was still night on the planet, ships-time stated that it was around breakfast time and a fair number of the senior officers who used this particular mess hall had come to eat before they started their shifts. The kitchen itself was closed due to the fact the ship's cook had apparently recently left _Voyager,_ but someone had been kind enough to show Chris how to use one of the replicators.

He sipped orange juice from his glass, and in his mind went over everything that had happened to him. There were so many wonders to take in here. For one, the technology on _Voyager_ was well beyond anything they had in his own time, and secondly the fa it was well known in this time that aliens existed.

In fact, there were a few non-humans in the room now. Two blue people sat at the far end of the room. A man and woman, each had ruts in their face that looked like a vertical line splitting their face directly down the center. Quite quickly Chris realized he was staring and turned away to again look out the large windows that ran along the mess hall.

A crew member walked by the window outside and the suddenness of this brought Chris out of his thoughts. He realized the crew must be making repairs, and being able to do it on a planet made it easier. Although he figured that the parts of the ship that were underwater would be difficult to repair until they were able to move the ship.

The crew must have just begun to work on the damage outside since the Frain had informed them there would be no more attacks. They didn't waste time, and they seemed to be a very efficient crew. They also seemed to know how to react in a crisis.

For example he had heard a few crew members talking about how the lowest deck on the ship, deck fifteen, had been flooded during impact. But all the crew in that area had escaped before it had become completely filled with water. Life in space must have been hard on the crew if they had become so used to such things. He wondered if he could learn to cope with the amazing things he would see on the long journey back to earth.

Who could know, but thoughts of seeing his home again, even if it was four hundred years later, still made him happy.

"Nice view, mind if I join you?" Sil's voice came from behind him.

Chris turned and smiled up at her, he then quickly stood and offered her a chair. "Please do."

Sil sat in the chair opposite him, and smiled brightly at him. Chris felt knot inside his stomach. He wasn't sure what to say. Thankfully she spoke first.

"I didn't have a chance to thank you for coming to speak with my people." She said beaming, but her smile quickly faded. "When we transported back, you were gone. I was worried that Tok's weapon may have still hurt you even though you had transported."

"When I got back Tuvok had suggested I leave the area since Tok was about to be transported to the ship.” Chris explained. “So I came here to think.”

"About what?" Sil asked.

Chris lifted his glass to take a sip and before doing so he said, "Everything."

He tasted the orange juice in his mouth. It was the same it had been four hundred years ago. So much was the same, but so much was different.

"Yes, this all must be hard for you. Not being from this time and finding out everyone you know is dead." Sil said, a frown again conquering her smile. She looked around the mess hall, and then back at him. "But it is good that you found your own kind."

Chris knew what she said was true but he couldn't help but feel out of place nonetheless.

"Yes, I suppose your right, but I don't know what it is. It's like being in the center of a crowd that knows why they are there, with you standing in the middle wondering where everyone is going. But to be honest, there is a bit of excitement to be had in that kind of mystery."

Sil smiled at him again. He found her gaze to be quite amazing, partly because her eyes were a different color each time she looked at him. Much like his life going forward, she was also a mystery to him, yet he trusted her more than anyone else he had met so far here.

Quietly, and slowly from the back of his mind, a shallow indistinguishable voice rang in his ear and he turned to look behind him but he saw no one there. He turned back to face Sil who was now just staring at him seeming lost in thought. He instinctively rubbed his temple where he knew the implant was.

"Is it bothering you again?" she asked him.

"No, its just hard to imagine its there, I can't feel it or anything." He said looking down at Sil's hand where he saw the marking he had seen before. He reached his hand out and touched hers where the marking was, "What is this marking? I saw it before and I couldn't help feel that it was something familiar."

Sil looked down at her hand, "This, is the mark of our god's. It signifies that we are grateful for their absence on our world for four thousand years. Almost all Frain have similar markings on their bodies."

Chris leaned in to look at the marking, and Sil allowed him to pull her hand closer.

The black shape looked like an egg, but one part of the egg was broken and separated from the rest. At certain points around the egg, there were what looked like spiders legs arcing away from it. Perhaps that is why it looked familiar.

"Looks kind of like a spider." He said releasing her grayish white hand.

"A spider?" Sil said, clearly puzzled. "What is that?"

"It's an insect on earth." Chris said leaning back in his chair. He again realized that things that seemed normal to him would come as new information to others here. Especially Sil and the rest of her people, after all, the Frain had been cut off from the rest of the universe for four thousand years. Who knew what things they had missed that existed right outside of their system. For all they knew there could have even originally been more planets in their system before the field had been erected.

Sil looked at her hand and then back at Chris. Her eyes were now a light blue. "This is what our god's took form as when they existed in corporeal form. They were said to not be very merciful god's however. In fact, it is said we were specifically created to be their slaves. Yet, even so, they brought life to our kind, that is why we adorn our bodies with their image."

The door to the mess hall opened as it had done many times during Chris and Sil's conversation. After all it was lunch time and the crew was in and out of the room at an almost constant flow. This time it was Tuvok whom had entered. Once inside he made a quick glance around the room and when his focus fell on Chris and Sil he made his way towards them.

"Mr. Moss, Sil, Your presence is required." he said when he came up to their table. Chris noticed Tuvok still had the same straight non-emotional face he had when Chris had seen him last in the transporter room. Tom had mentioned to him that Tuvok's race controlled their emotions. Chris couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the possibility of such a thing.

"Of course." Sil said standing up. Chris did the same, and they both followed Tuvok out of the mess hall.

As they walked down the corridor, about halfway to the turbo-lift Sil turned to Chris and asked, "With all the thinking you've been doing... Have you ever considered staying here on Fra?"

Chris stopped walking. Tuvok noticed him stop and stopped as well and turned around to face them both.

Chris actually hadn't thought about that as an option. After all, he was human. Wouldn't it make more sense to try and get to his own home planet? But then, there was the long journey _Voyager_ and her crew had ahead of them, could he learn to handle the difficulties of space travel?

"There will be time to discuss this matter later, but right now, I'm afraid we have little time." Tuvok said abruptly cutting into Chris's train of thought.

"Why, what's happening?" Sil asked.

"The Field around your system is collapsing and we fear it may crush everything inside it including this planet."

Sil almost appeared to collapse herself when she heard this. "How can that be, the Field has been stable for four thousand years." She said as they started to walk again, this time with a bit more haste.

"We believe that the field was being generated by the crashed vessel Tok discovered." Tuvok said. "And since the power has failed on that vessel, whatever was producing the field is also losing power. I am leading an away team to the Causality and we would like you to join us because you have both been there before and know the lay of the land better than we do."

"Okay." Sil said nodding to Chris. "We will accompany you."

* * *


	27. Away Team

* * *

Upon reaching the transporter room Chris and Sil were given Combadges of their own and Tuvok instructed them on the devices use so they could stay in touch for the duration of the expedition. They were also given light beacons that fit on their wrist as Tuvok said that the power on the Causality had failed and there was no guarantee the lights were still on there.

Chris was attaching his light beacon when Tom entered the transporter room and slapped him on the back in a friendly manner.

"Hey Chris, I have a question for you. We don't usually have the chance to ask this to anyone from your time, but what about our time do you find the most fascinating?" Tom asked as he put on his own light beacon as it seemed Tom would likely be accompanying them.

Chris looked around the room and thought about how to respond. It was true that he found many things fascinating about the future, but he didn't know which to indicate was his highest ranked. As he looked around the room he saw Tuvok, Seven, Sil, and the pregnant woman who had been there when Tobias had formed. He still didn't know her name yet. As he had noticed before, she had some ridges on her forehead which indicated to him that she wasn't human.

Non-Human races themselves were quite a wonder to him. While the technology in the era was far from what he had known, he could still grasp the concept behind them and it wasn’t as mind blowing as he would have expected. But other races and their cultures, that’s what was truly fascinating to him.

"I suppose, just about everything really. But meeting other races is interesting." He replied looking up and over towards Sil, the one alien he had come to know, even if only slightly. "Very interesting."

Tom chuckled.

"You remind me of Harry.” he said as he stepped beside Chris and put an arm over his shoulders. He then lowered his voice and said, “Be careful buddy, you never know what you may get into out here."

"Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind." Chris said with a smile, never taking his gaze off of Sil who was now conversing with Tuvok near the transporter pad.

Tom walked away and kissed the pregnant woman on the cheek. This confirmed to Chris that she was clearly Tom's wife whom the Lieutenant had mentioned before when they had been talking in sickbay. It was an interesting fact to take into mind that different races interacted romantically as if it was no issue.

Chris shook his head and laughed to himself as he turned to look at Sil once more. He almost felt silly with that train of thought running through his mind. Why would anything like that matter to him here, now? There were clearly more important matters at hand.

After a moment Sil turned from her conversation and saw that he was looking at her. Embarrassed, he looked away quickly and focused on his arm beacon and after a moment he heard someone walk up beside him.

"Are you ready?" Sil asked, now standing next to him.

"As ready as I'll ever be.” He said as he looked up at her, “I just hope we can find something to keep your world from harm and perhaps something to send me home."

"I wonder if that is possible.” She said with a frown, “Well, at least if you can’t find a way back, things here are not so bad for you."

He had to admit that she had a point. He was beginning to grow accustomed to the new reality he found himself in. Here in this time he would be able to travel through space and seemany strange new worlds along the way.

He had also begun to make knew friends on _Voyager_ , like Tom, and he had to admit that it was nice to have that. It was apparent to him now that he had focused so much on his future before that he had not taken the time to make any real friends. His desired career had been his only drive throughout his teenage years and it had left him alone without much in the way of social connections.

And then there was Sil herself whom had become an important part of his life in a very short time. But he knew that even that was a fragile situation that could change at any time. For one, The _Voyager_ and it’s crew would be moving on from this place at some point, and it was unlikely that she would choose to join them on their journey. It would be a shame to lose such a connection with someone so quickly after making it.

And then there was what Sil had suggested when Tuvok had interrupted their conversation in the corridor. She had suggested that he could choose to stay on Fra.

"Well, even if I could find a way, I'm starting to find reasons-," he started to say as he slowly stood upright all the while keeping his gaze fixed on her."-to want to stay."

He figured there was a lot of double meaning it what he had said and he wondered if the translators here would convey it into Sil’s language in any significant way. Before his new friend could reply however, Janeway entered the transporter room and drew everyone’s attention.

The Captain looked around the room and surveyed everyone on the team like she must have done countless times over the years. Chris knew she was most likely hoping to herself that everyone would be alright on what Tuvok had called an 'away mission'.

"It believe we are ready captain." Tuvok said stepping forward.

"We have received notification from the Frain that all of their people have left the ship and they are returning control of it to us." Janeway said and then nodded to them. “Good luck.”

Chris and Sil followed suite as Tuvok, Tom, Seven stepped into place on the transporter pad and faced forward.

"Energize." Janeway said after they were all in place, and behind her Tom's wife activated the transporter.

* * *

  
  


Chris once again found himself standing in the cargo bay of the Causality as he had been almost a day prior. It felt strange to return to the very spot he had first awoken in this time.

Everyone else on the away team had activated their light beacons and had started to scan them around the room to illuminate their surroundings, so he did the same.

His first instinct was to immediately walk over to the stasis tube he had emerged from and looked inside. It was no surprise to him that it was empty, of course.

Tom and Sil came to a halt beside Chris and also began to examine the tubes.

“I found Chris inside this one.” Sil explained as she pushed on the black panel in front of the set of tubes. “It doesn’t appear to have any power any more.”

Tom started to wave a device he was holding toward the other tube that was still closed. It began to beep.

"I'm detecting bio-material inside the other stasis tube." Tom said stepping closer.

"Could someone else be inside?" Sil questioned which made Chris's gut wrench at that thought.

Tom waved the device around some more, "I'm not detecting any life signs and as you said there is no power left in these systems, so I don't think there could be anyone alive inside."

"Should we open it?" Chris said as he turned to look at Tuvok who walked up behind them.

"Once we restore power we will be able to make a more thorough examination, but for now we should proceed to the bridge." Tuvok said.

It appeared that Seven had already left the cargo bay as her light beacon could be seen down the corridor outside the bay. The rest of the away team followed her out and down the passageway so as to not get too separated.

"The bridge is right there." Sil indicated as they approached Seven who had stopped halfway down the corridor to wait for them. “The next door on the right.”

Chris noticed that the door did not open when they walked near it as it had for he and Sil last time they had been here.

"It appears that the power failure has initiated an emergency closer command on this door. We will have to use the manual override." Tuvok said opening an access hatch to the right of the door.

While he waited, Chris turned and looked back down the corridor where more doors lined the walls. He wondered what was behind them.

"We will look later, don't worry." Sil said as she turned to him with a smile. “One mystery at a time.”

Seven joined Tuvok near the access hatch and gave him the assistance of her light beacon. Tom stood a few meters away in the center of the corridor and was still scanning the area with his device.

"Find anything interesting Tom?" Chris asked to break the awkward silence that had formed after a few more moments. Tom looked up from his readings and smiled and then held out the device.

"Would you like to try it?" Paris asked, “It’s called a tricorder.”

Chris smiled and took the device and held it like Tom had been. The tricorders face was covered with a large amount of lights and readouts, but he couldn't make much sense out of any of it. "I’m not sure what any of this means, it may take me a little while to..." Chris began to say but couldn’t help but feel a sudden rush of recognition as he looked over what was being displayed on one of the readouts.

"What is it?" Tom said stepping closer and stood beside him so he could also see the face of the tricorder.

"This readout…” Chris responded in a soft tone as he peered at the readout a moment more. “Is this the scan you took of the bio-matter in the stasis tube?"

"Yes, I was looking for other traces of the same matter in the rest of the ship but I haven't found any." Tom looked up at him, "Why do you ask?"

"I'm not sure how, but it feels familiar to me somehow." Chris said looking up from the tricorder at Sil who was leaning against the wall across from the door Tuvok and Seven were trying to open. "It's like the information is there, I just can't get at it."

"It is possible that your recognition stems from more of Tobias's memories. It is best if you let them surface on their own and not try to force them. "Tuvok said as he straitened and turned to face Chris. "For now, We have bypassed the emergency systems on this door and should be able to manually open it."

Tom took two objects from the bag he had been carrying and placed one on each of the two door panels where they adhered in place. Then Seven and Tom pulled them apart separating the doors.

When the door was fully open, Chris handed the tricorder back to Tom so he could resume his scans. Everyone moved into the bridge and spread out to examine it.

"Only one chair?” Tom said as he scanned the seat in question. “Wonder if its the conn."

Tuvok had pulled out his own tricorder and was scanning the display screen in front of the single seat. "It appears the computer core is behind this view screen, we should attempt to access it." he said and began to feel around the edges of the screen.

Seven had moved to the rear of the room and was looking at the flat unimpressive wall that was there. Sil moved to stand beside her.

"This bridge does not appear to be very efficient." Seven said turning to the others. "Could this be an emergency command center rather than the main bridge?"

"This is the room that the computer told me was the bridge, although I suppose it could have been malfunctioning." Sil said.

“Perhaps we should move to the second phase of the mission and find the engine room." Suggested Seven as she also scanned with a tricorder, "The chroniton readings from the rear of the ship are still present, but they are fading."

Chris thought back to before they had left on the away mission. Tuvok had shown Sil and Chris the scans of the _Causality_ while they rode the turbolift. The vessel had four decks, and was only a fifth the size of _Voyager_ , but even with that fact there was still a lot of ship to explore.

The Vulcan had explained that the priority of the mission was two fold. First, they were to attempt to retrieve the ships logs, and second, they were to attempt to restore power to the ship.

The hope was that restoring power would prevent further collapse of the field around the system. The Chroniton energy flux of which Seven now spoke, was likely related to the field’s generation. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of energy it was throwing off had also prevented them from transporting directly to the engine room.

"Seven, you and Chris try and find the route to the engine room. The rest of us will continue our analysis of the bridge." Tuvok ordered.

Seven nodded. She took the bag Tom was carrying and handed it to Chris. He slung the bag over his shoulder and after taking a moment to offer a smile and a nod to Sil he followed Seven out the door.

A loud ominous hum could be heard from the direction he and Seven now walked.

* * *


	28. Wind

* * *

A half hour had passed since the away team had boarded the Causality and Harry had been keeping a steady lock on them in case of an emergency. _Voyagers_ bridge was nearly deserted and the lack of the normal hum of it’s engines put him at unease.

Below him in their command chairs, Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay sat and quietly discussed diplomatic information in regards to the Frain.

The communication console in front of Harry beeped and he looked down at it to see that someone was trying to contact them.

"Captain, we're being hailed.” He said tapping a few controls to prepare to open the channel. “The signal is originating from the Frain space station closest to the approaching field wall."

"How close is the field from their current position?" she asked standing and turning to him. Harry looked down at the readout beside his communication display. "It will intersect with the station in approximately four hours."

Harry noticed the captain began to pace, something she didn't normally do. Of course he knew that normally an entire planetary system wasn't about to be crushed with them along with it.

"Open the channel." she said after a moment and then faced the view screen.

Harry activated the link and after a few seconds a Frain male's face appeared on the screen.

"This is Captain Janeway.” she offered. “May I ask with whom I am speaking.”

"Greetings Captain, I am Station Manager Mau.” He replied. “I apologize for contacting you directly and outside of the normal channels, but we are experiencing a strange phenomenon aboard the station and we hoped that perhaps you would have some experience in dealing with such things.

"What sort of phenomenon?" Commander Chakotay asked as he moved to stand beside the captain.

"Honestly, I’m in no position to categorize it.”Mau said with a tone of fear in his voice. “We are a civilian resort and we have no scientific equipment aboard to scan with."

Janeway looked up to Harry and nodded to him. He knew she was wordlessly asking him to scan the station and its surrounding space.

“Give us a moment and we will see what we can find out.” Janeway said. “In the meantime, we were informed by your government that your station was to be evacuated because of the approaching field wall. How goes the evacuation?"

Mau looked to his right off screen and then back at the captain, a frown overtaking him.

"I’m afraid it’s part of the reason I am contacting you.” The man said as worry caused him to furrow his brow. “The vessel's that were scheduled to arrive and transport us to the home world have also been intercepted by the phenomenon I mentioned. They appear to be dead in space and we can not contact them."

As he listened, Harry had begun to review the scans laid out before him and saw immediately what the issue was.

"Captain I am detecting a variable tachyon radiation wave front approaching the planet well ahead of the chroniton field wall. It appears that the collapse of the Progenitor Field has created a temporal imbalance in the form of a shock wave. It has already engulfed the station and the evacuation craft."

On the view screen, Station Manager Mau began to talk extremely fast and his words became a high pitched squeal. He then vanished from view and flashes of extremely fast movement could be seen on the stations main deck.

"What just happened?" Chakotay asked.

The captain began to walk up to where Harry was and he immediately moved to his left to let her stand beside him. He watched as she quickly looked over the sensor scans he had just taken.

"It appears that time has been fractured throughout the shockwave, the station appears to have just passed into a different time sheer where time seems to be moving at seven times the normal rate. “Janeway said. “As for the ships sent to retrieve them, according to this, time is moving at a mere fraction of normal.”

All three of them looked up when on the view screen the main deck of the station disappeared and was replaced by the ocean view outside _Voyager_.

"We've lost the connection." Harry said and then began to make some calculations. "It appears that this fractured shockwave will intersect the planet in five hours forty two minutes at its present velocity."

Janeway stepped out from behind ops and quickly crossed the top level of the bridge towards the railing that overlooked the command level. "Commander, join the away team and bring B'Elanna with you. Repairing _Voyager_ has just become second priority. We need to try and find a way to stabilize that field and if possible dissipate that shockwave."

"Aye Captain." Chakotay said and he moved to enter the turbo-lift.

This left only Janeway and Harry on the bridge now and he couldn't remember the last time the bridge had been so empty.

"Harry, Open a channel to the other stations in orbit, we need to warn them to evacuate ahead of schedule." the Captain ordered.

"Yes Ma'am." he said and then winced inwardly. He had always had trouble remembering not to call her that.

* * *

  
  


Commander Chakotay materialized in the cargo hold of the Causality with B'Elanna Torres standing beside him. They both pulled out they're tricorders and began to scan for the away team. The cargo bay itself looked much like those on _Voyager_ , except the two large tubes at the back which Chakotay assumed was where Chris had emerged.

They exited the cargo bay and followed the indicators on their tricorders that showed the locations of Tuvok, Paris and Sil's combadge beacons.

"I can't locate Seven or Chris. However with the amount of interference from the engine core, I’m not surprised." B'Elanna said as they walked down the corridor.

As they entered the room that the bulk of the away team occupied, Tuvok looked up from inside an access hatch under a screen on the wall. Sil was beside Tuvok holding a hyper spanner and Tom was behind the chair in the center of the room looking into another access hatch of some kind.

"It turns out we have less time than we first anticipated." Chakotay requested. "Report."

Tuvok did something in the hatch he was working in and the screen on the wall slid up into the ceiling. Behind it was a large bank of computer chips and tubing. Some of it looked similar to the technology found on _Voyager_ , but the rest was significantly more advanced. In a few places, dotted among the normal components, Borg technology could be seen.

"I have just made access to the ships main computer core. However main power is still offline. Seven of Nine and Mr. Moss have gone to locate engineering and attempt to reboot the system and repair any damage." Tuvok reported.

"What a beauty." Torres said stepping over to look at the computer core. "There is no doubt about it, This technology is well beyond our own, It looks like they've replaced bio-neural gelpaks with some sort of bio-neural chip and tubing combination."

"Try and see if you can access they're database." Chakotay said.

"Commander I feel that I must point out that any information and logs in this database may contain information from the future. To maintain the integrity of the timeline we should only attempt to retrieve files that will help us repair this ships engine core to prevent the impending disaster." Tuvok said.

He was right of course. Chakotay knew the rules laid out in the Temporal Prime Directive. No Starfleet crewman was to attempt to locate information about the future.

"Only retrieve the information you need, leave the rest untouched." He said to B'Elanna.

"Yes sir." She said and began to work. Sil had come to stand beside him. He felt her gaze fall on him.

"What if something in the database explains why Chris is here?" Sil asked, "If he was sent here to do something, shouldn't we try and find out what, after all they must have had a good reason to take him and bring him to this time."

She had made another good point directly opposing Tuvok's observation, however he knew their priorities. Saving the planet and all their lives came first, then came solving the rest of the mystery.

"We will discuss this further after the current dilemma has been solved, otherwise in a few hours it won't matter much what we do." he said as he stepped back around the center chair. He put his hands on the headrest. "I am going to see if I can help Seven and Chris with the engine core."

The others nodded to him and he turned and exited the room. He chose a direction that seemed to lead him towards the center of the dampening effect registering on the tricorder. He knew the engine core would likely be there.

After a few moments of walking, he began to hear a thrumming sound which usually accompanied an engine core. However he also heard something that didn't usually accompany it, and that was phaser fire.

Chakotay broke into a sprint and entered the open door at the end of the corridor having already pulled his own phaser out and making it ready.

He took quick note of the lay of the land and the current situation. In the center of the large three level space was an engine of some unknown technology. It was comprised of two circular ribbon shaped plates rotating around each other at an incredible speed. One was spinning vertically and the other horizontally. In their center was a brightly glowing ball of energy and light that looked similar to the swirls and glow of the Progenitor Field itself. It was a good bet that this engine core was somehow tied to the generation of the system encircling bubble.

To his left he saw Seven laying on the floor near a lit control panel. Her eye's were closed and she wasn’t moving. On an upper platform to Chakotay’s right Chris was spraying the rear of the engine room with phaser fire using what had to be Seven's phaser.

Chakotay quickly knelt beside Seven and checked her pulse and was relieved to find she was only unconscious. He looked in the direction of Chris's phaser fire but couldn't see who or what the man was shooting at.

"Chris, what's going on?" he yelled over the thrum of the engine core. He began to worry that Chris firing a phaser near such a device could cause something to go terribly wrong.

Chakotay could tell that Chris had taken no notice of his call, so he quickly climbed a ladder up to be on the same level. It was then that the frantically firing teen seemed to then take notice of Chakotay's presence and stopped firing.

Chris then proceeded to turn and aimed his phaser at Chakotay. Chakotay reacted by aiming back at him, and he could see that the mans face had all the signs of panic and fear. Something was clearly driving him to act this way, so Chakotay held his fire.

"Put down the phaser and tell me what's wrong." Chakotay requested.

Chris squinted and then his eyes became wide with horror, "It's behind you!"

Chakotay dove to the ground just as Chris fired, the beam narrowly missing his shoulder.

Unfortunately Chakotay's momentum caused him to fall onto the metal gravity plating with a hard thud, and pain shot through his knee. He Ignored the pain the best he could and quickly looked over his shoulder at what Chris had fired at.

There, high on the wall was a strange shape masked by the dim lighting. As far as Chakotay could tell, it seemed that Chris had missed his target because he had altered his shot so as not to hit him. Relief struck Chakotay as he realized that Chris hadn't been aiming at him after all.

The shape, still shrouded in the shadows, now began to move quickly along the ceiling and then leapt into the air at them. Chakotay quickly rolled onto his back and aimed his phaser up at the fast approaching target and fired.

* * *


	29. From Within

* * *

Tuvok had heard the phaser fire even from the long distance he was away, his Vulcan hearing being so much more sensitive than the others on the away team. He stood quickly and ordered everyone but B'Elanna to follow him. After a quick run, they reached and entered the engine room in a matter of moments just as Chakotay was firing his phaser over their heads at something above them.

Tuvok heard Sil yelp from beside him and he turned with his phaser drawn to see what had caused her alarm. Now at Sil's feet was the still twitching body of a creature who had fallen from above her. It appeared to be a large arachnid approximately one and a half meters in length.

“Be careful, I only hit it with stun.” Chakotay said from the raised platform he was on.

To Tuvok’s left, Lieutenant Paris had taken out his tricorder and begun to scan Seven of Nine who appeared to be unconscious. After an uneventful moment of watching the arachnid for any signs of life, Tuvok put his phaser away and pulled out his own tricorder and began to scan the creature.

"It's dead. Its exoskeleton appears to have been shattered by the beams impact alone." Tuvok evaluated. He then looked up to see Chakotay leaning on a railing favoring one leg, "Are you alright, Commander?"

"I'll be fine," Chakotay said turning to look behind himself, "But something is wrong with Chris. He's lost consciousness."

"Its probably the same reason Seven is unconscious, I'm detecting a foreign chemical in her blood stream." Tom said standing to his feet, "We need to get them to sickbay immediately."

Tom grabbed Seven under her arms and began to drag her out of the room and further from the interference caused by the engine core. Tuvok climbed up to where Chakotay was and lifted Chris by himself and gently passed him down to Sil on the lower level. The Frain woman steadied the unconscious man against herself until Tuvok had the chance to climb down as well.

Tuvok looked back up to his Commander who indicated to him that he could get down without any help. So Tuvok carefully slung Chris over his shoulder and followed Paris out of the Engine room toward the bridge.

* * *

  
  


Chakotay slowly lowered himself down the ladder and Sil stood nearby ready to help if he happened to fall.

"Do you think they will be alright?" Sil asked him as they began to walk towards the engine room door with her helping support his weight. Chakotay looked down at the creature that had attacked them when they reached the doorway, and then turned to face Sil.

"I'm sure it was just something that induces unconsciousness like the spiders on our planet use to incapacitate their prey." he said.

"It's strange, Chris explained to me about spiders before we came here because he saw my tattoo, and he was correct in the fact that this creature bears a striking resemblance to that of our creators." Sil said bending low to look at the dead arachnid.

Chakotay looked down at the corpse before him. The spider had landed on it’s back and it’s eight long legs curled up above it’s body. It’s dark gray chitin skin appeared almost like hard leather and had visible cracks where it had been crushed under the force of the phaser beam.

Before he could say anything, the energy cascade in the center of the spinning engine behind them flashed and attracted thier attention. The flash had been followed by a small metallic clang like something had just landed on the upper platform he had just descended from. Chakotay pulled out his phaser once again and stepped back toward the engine core.

“What was that?" Sil asked stepping beside him.

On the edge of the upper platform a shadowy figure moved. Chakotay raised his light beacon to illuminate it. There, slowly crawling into view was another large arachnid. When it noticed them it exuded a high pitched squeal and began to crawl over the edge of the gangway toward them. Chakotay quickly fired and killed the creature as quickly as he had the first.

In the center of the room there came another flash of light, and this time a thud could be heard off to the right of the room behind a row of consoles.

“This is not good.” Chakotay said and exchanged a glance with Sil who quickly picked up a nearby length of railing pipe that had seemingly fallen from one of the suspended walkways four millennia ago.

Another flash, and another thud. This time however Chakotay saw the arachnid being exuded from the core as it appeared and watched as it landed two meters in from of him.

Chakotay quickly kicked the body of the first dead arachnid at his feet out the doorway and into the corridor behind them.

"We have to close this door and seal it!" Chakotay yelled as realization hit him that this was not something that was going to stop happening any time soon. Somehow, the cascade itself was spawning these spiders, and more were soon to follow.

To his left he saw Sil swing her pipe at a crawler that was now on the wall above her, and it dodged quickly and scampered away. Chakotay also found that the eight legged creatures were encroaching on his position as well and fired his phaser at the one that was closest to him, and killed it.

All of the spiders in the room began to howl and the amount of howling seemed to indicate that there were quite a few already present.

"What in the world?!” B'Elanna exclaimed from behind Chakotay. “Tuvok sent me to see what was taking you so long. I guess that answers that!”

The Cascade was flashing almost every two seconds now and the room was filling with the crawling vermin. Chakotay opened fire again in a sweep across the floor in front of him, his phaser beam colliding with a half dozen spiders knocking most of them back dead.

B'Elanna had begun to fire upon the approaching menace and Chakotay decided to use this cover to move backwards towards her and the door. Thankfully, it appeared that Sil had already turned and run to the relative safety of the corridor, so that was one less thing to worry about.

B'Elanna started to fall back when Chakotay reached where she was standing and they both moved together in unison covering each others flanks.

At this point the entire engine room seemed to be crawling with the creatures, and the flashes of light still kept coming.

When they both reached the exit, The Commander could see that Sil was attempting to close the engine rooms heavy blast doors, but she wasn't having any luck.

"Help her close these doors!" he yelled, "I'll try and keep them back!"

B'Elanna turned and pulled a panel off the wall, Sil noticed what she had done and did the same on her side. B'Elanna quickly assessed the controls and pointed Sil to a large two pronged lever. Both Sil and B'Elanna pulled the emergency close levers at the same time. And the two parts of the door slid together with a very loud pneumatic hiss.

Chakotay was sweating much more than he would have liked. He wiped his brow and leaned against the door panel in front of him to catch his breath. Even now, from this side of the door, he could still hear the flashes accompanied now by a loud banging, a signal that the arachnids were trying to break through.

"Lets hope this door holds and that room is self contained.” B'Elanna said as she moved to look at the dead arachnid that Chakotay had kicked out of the room. “Where did all of those come from?"

"I don't know, but lets get that specimen back to _Voyager_. This whole situation just got a lot more complicated... again."


	30. Memories

* * *

"Spiders?" Janeway said, almost at a loss for words.

The away team had requested immediate transport to sickbay and Janeway made her way there from the bridge as quickly as she could. In the pre-mission briefing, they had discussed the possibility of hostile's being present on the ship, and Tuvok had given them a one and a four billion chance there could be. So much for statistics.

"They seemed to be coming out of the engine core itself." Chakotay said from the bio bed closest to the door as Tom patched up his leg. To their left The Doctor was busy tending to Seven of Nine and Chris who were both laying unconscious on their own bio beds.

Janeway turned and looked at the large sample tray in the center of the room which now contained a dead arachnid, the same kind Chakotay had just described. At first glance it reminded her of a Talarian hook spider, but larger and of a solid gray color.

B'Elanna had placed a level ten force field around it just to be safe and then had left for engineering to compile the data she had downloaded from the computer core on the Causality. Tuvok had gone to the bridge to contact the Frain to make sure a lock-down was placed upon the Causality.

"Why would a temporal engine create these creatures?" Sil asked standing over near where Chris lay.

"I don't know, but we'll have Harry look at Seven's tricorder. Maybe she took some readings before she was attacked." Janeway said.

"You can ask Seven yourself captain.” The Doctor said as he walked up to them and smiled, “She will be regaining consciousness soon. There was a neutralizing agent in her bloodstream which induced an unconscious state. However, I have found no trace of it in Mr. Moss’s bloodstream."

Janeway looked over at the unconscious Christopher. She couldn't help but notice that Sil was holding his hand to comfort him even though he was unconscious.

"Then what caused him to lose consciousness?" Chakotay asked standing to his feet, his leg fully healed.

"Look at this,"The Doctor said as he led them to the console near the critical care bio bed. He pointed to a frequency wave on the screen. "The neural activity in his basil ganglia is registering at four times the normal amount. Something is causing the dormant storage centers of his brain to become active all at once. He likely lost consciousness because his brain couldn't handle processing all of that information."

"What kind of information?" Janeway asked.

"That is the interesting part, When I scanned his brain to locate what was causing the surge of information, I found something unexpected." The Doctor brought up another screen, this one showed a diagram of a brain. "He has somehow gained forty years of memories. Memories that were not there when I scanned him eight hours ago and first discovered the borg implant."

Janeway turned away from the screen and walked over towards where Sil was standing. She turned and made eye contact with the Doctor.

"Tobias." she said and realized only after the fact that she had made the profound statement out loud, even if only meaning to say it to herself. Everyone else looked at each other.

"Who?" The Doctor asked.

"The telepath from the transporter room." she said, "He must have used his last moments to transfer the memories somehow."

"I completed the autopsy you asked me to run, and it appears you were correct, he was indeed a Betazoid. "The Doctor said. "But no where in my medical files do I have a record of a Betazoid that could transfer such a large bulk of memories in such a way. However, he did have a similar implant to the one Mr. Moss has. Perhaps that device somehow facilitated the connection."

Tom walked over and leaned on the nearby bio bed and shook his head. "Didn't Chris say something about dreaming about Tobias's family _before_ the accident in the transporter room happened?"

Janeway realized that Tom was right, Chris had made that claim. So perhaps Tobias had given Mr. Moss a few memories prior to the accident that stranded the Causality here. But to what end? Whatever the case was, until Chris woke it was all speculation and they would get no answers.

"Doctor, can you safely revive him?" she asked turning to the Hologram who was now reviewing the readout of Chris's brain patterns.

"I believe so, but It’s likely that he won’t make much sense or even realize what he is talking about." The Doctor said stepping away from the console.

Janeway thought for a moment and weighed the options. "Do It," she said, "We need to know what Tobias shared with him. Unfortunately we do not really have the time to air on the side of caution."

Someone grabbed Janeway’s arm from behind and she turned to see that it was Sil. She saw that Sil had a worried look on her face and knew that the woman's hesitance likely came from a place of camaraderie. Janeway had noticed the bond that Chris and Sil had been forming amid this crisis and she knew that this young Frain woman now cared about his well being.

"Don't worry, we have the best Doctor in the Quadrant. If anyone can help Chris it’s him." Janeway reassured. Sil looked over at the Doctor who was getting a hypospray from the tray near the emergency bio bed, then back and Janeway and nodded with a step back to watch.

The Doctor pressed the hypospray on Chris's neck.

Chris sat up almost as soon as the Doctor had finished pulling his hand back and startled everyone.

"Gullina!" Christopher screamed. It was a word Janeway had never heard before, so there was no way to know if it was a person, place or thing. She saw that the young mans eyes were wide and fear was covering his face and he quickly looked at everyone around him and jumped off the bio bed. The Doctor moved to stop him, and Chris struggled with him and then began to scream again.

"I have to find her! Where is she?" Chris yelled as Tom joined the Doctor in attempting to push him back on to the bio bed. They were only partially successful as Chris continued to scream seemingly random phrases connected to an entire lifetime of memories.

"Why are they doing this!"

"Full reverse engines!"

"We are under attack! Get to your station!"

"Get the port shields back online!"

"Pull us away from the anomaly!"

"You knew this would happen!"

During all the commotion Tom had been joined by Chakotay and they were holding Chris down as the Doctor gave him a sedative to calm him. Chris stopped screaming but continued now to mutter random phrases from calm moments in origin.

"I love you too, I'll see you soon."

"Have you ever heard of an anchor paradox?"

"Four Thousand Years, How can that be?"

"Yes Sir, I understand our orders."

"You left us with little choice."

"Activate the temporal core."

"Engineering, come in, what's wrong?"

"Prepare to activate core overload."

"I'm sorry my love."

With that final phrase Chris fell silent and just lay there as he stared up at the ceiling.

Everyone watched as Sil slowly moved closer to him and reached for his hand once more. The moment she touched him he turned his head, looked at her, and seemed fully aware of her presence.

"...Sil?" he murmured.

Janeway moved over to the bed and looked down at Chris, his eyes were still fixed on Sil. The Doctor, Tom and Chakotay had let go of their hold on him and where now standing at the end of the bio bed.

"Do you know where you are?" The Doctor asked him.

Without looking away from Sil he replied, "On _Voyager_ , in the Frain system."

"Do you remember what happened?" Chakotay asked.

Chris took his gaze off of Sil and looked straight up again, then closed his eyes.

"Last thing I remember, we were on the Causality, and Seven was being attacked by a Gullina Drone, then I was here and Sil was holding my hand." He said.

"You don't remember shooting up the engine room or trying to get off the bio-bed and screaming a lot of nonsense?" Tom asked but Janeway held up her hand to silence him. It was interesting he didn't remember any of it. But he had said something important.

"Tell me, what are these Gullina you speak of?" she asked hoping that his current train of thought would lead to some answers.

Chris again sat up, this time slowly. He looked Janeway in the eye. She met his gaze. He seemed almost lost in his own thoughts.

"The Gullina are..." he began to say but then he closed his eyes and seemed to fall back into unconsciousness and leaned against Sil beside him.

The Doctor was there to scan him almost as if he were made of wind, which wasn't that far from the truth.

Sil helped Chris lay back down so he wouldn't hurt himself. Out of the corner of her eye Janeway saw Seven stirring and apparently Chakotay also noticed this and went over to her. Janeway knew he would ask her about her scans, so she decided to continue to see to Chris.

"His neural levels are dropping," The Doctor said as he did his duty, "The memories that were surfacing appear to be returning to a dormant state in the basil ganglia."

"What does that mean Doctor?" the captain asked the hologram.

The Doctor led the way back to the center console where Chris's brain patterns were zigzagging across the screen. He pointed to an elevated section of the wave.

"It would indicate that anything that Tobias had known and committed to habit or instinct would now be part of Chris’s memories in that same respect."

Paris walked over and looked over the readout. He seemed to study it for a quick second, and then looked up.

"Does that mean he knows everything Tobias did?" Paris asked.

The Doctor seemed to hesitate to answer as his program likely weighed the best way to explain.

"No, they wouldn't be full complete memories, more like subtle nuances of knowledge or recognition. For example Mr. Paris, when you pilot the _Delta_ _Flyer_ , you use instinctual habit as you have done it so many times. You no longer need to fully commit your prefrontal cortex to the process as you once did."

Before anyone could say anything else, the door to sickbay opened and B'Elanna entered holding a PADD. The engineer looked excited about something so Janeway turned to her fully and looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"What have you found Lieutenant?" she asked as the chief engineer approached her.

"Its really interesting captain. They have an encryption system that makes ours look primitive, although it seems it is malfunctioning from being active so many years.” B'Elanna explained. “Normally it appears it would only allow someone to access any information that has chronologically already happened to them specifically. Basically it looks like they found a way to prevent information from falling into the hands of any time that shouldn't have it. When it works..."

"Did you find anything in regards to the Progenitor Field?" Janeway asked.

"Unfortunately, No. It looks like most of the memory core files has been cut off by degraded circuits. I was only able to decrypt fragmented files and random logs from various dates. None of it is complete or easy to search through. But I'm quite sure if I could repair the access relays that I would have better luck. But that would require going back to the _Causality_." B’Elanna replied as she looked over at the arachnid in the sample container.

"Unfortunately, Until we secure that ship of those arachnids, no one is going back there."Janeway said and looked at the chronometer on the nearby display. They had little time left before the variable tachyon wave front hit.

“Lieutenant, have Harry work with you to sift through the data you did get.” Janeway ordered. “Perhaps something in there will point us in the right direction.”

After B'Elanna had left to continue her work, voices from behind Janeway drew her attention. She saw that Seven was now standing and conversing with the Doctor and Chakotay who both seemed very engrossed in what she was saying. Chakotay noticed that Janeway was looking over at them and he began to walk towards her so that the rest would follow behind.

"Captain, your going to find this quite interesting." Chakotay said as she approached, "It seems our mystery has just taken another turn."

Janeway couldn't help but cringe. What could it possibly be now?

The Doctor and Seven both turned to her and at the same time, said "They have nearly identical DNA."

"Who does?" she asked seeking clarification.

The Doctor walked over to the dead arachnid and activated a readout on the side of the containment unit.

"I haven't yet had the chance to check the DNA of this arachnid as I was attending to the needs of my patients. But according to Seven, she was able to get a scan this creature just before it attacked her." The Doctor said and began to run the DNA scan. "Ah, just as she said. They are ninety nine percent identical.".

"Doctor, please, just tell me what you are saying." Janeway said getting a little annoyed with his ability to generalize his statements to keep her hanging.

"This Arachnid and our friend Sil here, have in most part the same DNA." the Doctor said.

"Not only that Captain, the Frain and these arachnids are as identical in genome pairings as humans are with monkeys." Seven said.

Janeway leaned on the console in front of her and contemplated the facts she was being given. She turned her head and looked over toward Sil and then looked down at the massive dead spider.

"How can that be?" Janeway said to herself. “Monkeys at least share defining traits with humans. Frain are bipedal, and these arachnid are definitely not.”

The Doctor, taking her statement as a real question began to work with another scan.

"It almost appears as if Frain DNA at one time, was identical to the Arachnid DNA. But I do not believe evolution is behind it." he said looking over the data. "Some kind of advanced genetic manipulation appears to have been at play. There is no doubt about it, the Frain were somehow directly created using the arachnids manipulated DNA."

Sil must have been listening into the conversation, because she gasped suddenly from the other end of the room. Janeway looked over and saw that the Frain woman was clutching the edge of the bed in front of her.

"So, these Spiders _are_ our creators, just as we thought." She said slightly stuttering. Sil then held up her hand and looked at something that was tattooed there.

"Sil, what can you tell us about these creatures?" Janeway asked and stepped over toward her.

Sil looked up at her and then squinted as if forcing the thoughts to come to her. "Every Frain child has been told of our gods. They were the ones who created us and placed us here on this planet. Yet we were nothing more than their slaves, their beasts of burden. Our people were even said to be eaten as food by these _gods._ But they all vanished one day four thousand years ago, when the..."

"When the field appeared.” Janeway hypothesized the rest as Sil trailed off. "They must have been blocked from entering this part of space from wherever they reside."

Sil nodded in agreement and then her eyes widened.

Janeway also knew what this meant and why Sil seemed suddenly frightened. The gods had found a way to return because the field was collapsing. And the gods were angry.

Janeway turned suddenly to Chakotay. "Commander, prepare an away team to return to the Causality. We need to make sure that door you sealed is going to hold. We can't allow these creatures to escape. I have a feeling that if they do, we're all going to be in trouble."

Chakotay nodded and motioned to Tom and Seven, who would be accompanying him back to the derelict.

"And Commander, be careful." she said to him before he could leave.

"Always." he said smiling, and then walked out of sickbay.

* * *


	31. Wave Front

* * *

Harry looked impatiently at his console which showed the leading edge of the shockwave that was fast approaching as there was only forty minutes left until it intersected them. They had analyzed the data, and come to the conclusion that it would have little effect on the planet itself, but it would indeed cause time to flow differently all over Fra.

Someone could be standing next to a friend, and then all of a sudden, time would speed up or slow down and that friend could have moved out of sight in an instant. The effect would likely cause havoc all over the planet for about an hour, but little damage would really be done. Thankfully, as a precaution the Frain government had issued a warning to it’s people to remain indoors and to not do anything hazardous while the wave intersected them.

Unfortunately, the approaching field wall following slowly behind the shockwave would likely be a completely different story in terms of causing damage. In six minutes time that wall would intersect with the closest Frain space station to it and they would then know the level of destruction it would cause.

Harry looked over toward Tuvok who was at Tactical. The lieutenant commander had come to the bridge about twenty minutes before and had contacted the Frain to have them make sure security was put in place around the _Causality_. Apparently, from what Tuvok had stated, there was some kind of incident on board involving large arachnids, and the ship had become a hazardous zone.

A door hiss caught Harry’s attention as Icheb entered the bridge from the turbo-lift. The young former Borg looked over at Harry and started to cross the upper bridge platform toward him.

It had become quite normal to see Icheb on the bridge as he was studying under Seven and Tuvok to prepare for his Starfleet entrance exams. Since the crash, Harry had heard that Icheb had been assisting the repair crews in their efforts to repair the various Borg upgrades throughout the ship that had been added to the _Voyager_ over the years.

"How long until the Progenitor Field wall intersects with the station?" Icheb asked as he came closer.

"Four minutes, twenty eight seconds." Harry read from the screen before him.

Icheb nodded and then moved to Seven's normal station and began to work on something on the console there.

Harry looked down at his screens again to evaluate the speed of the approaching Field wall. The rate of speed that the enormous bubble around the star system was collapsing remained constant, and that now left three minutes and forty seconds until it’s intersection with the station.

The turbo-lift opened once more, this time producing Captain Janeway who Harry noticed she seemed lost in thought. Tuvok looked up and nodded to her as she walked in front of his station down the steps to the lower level. She quickly moved to sit in the center chair where she accessed her personal computer which she had folded up from the chairs arm.

"Captain, the Frain have allowed us the use of one of their satellites to view the collision." Harry said preparing to put the video feed on the main viewer. The Frain themselves had become very open in the sharing of information which made them now seem almost completely opposite of the race that had been attacking them only a short time before. The attack truly must have been all of Tok's doing, and Harry was glad Tok was now in their brig where he could do little harm.

"Put it on screen." Janeway said without looking up from her own computer. Harry complied and the screen at the front of the bridge changed to show the station in question and behind it, covering all the rest of the space shown where stars should have been, was the Progenitor Field.

The Field looked almost alive as it flashed and swirled over itself in constantly moving patterns. It almost appeared like someone had poured a liquid onto the blackness of space and it was flowing over itself as it mixed, blotting out all of space beyond. There were red and yellow hues but the field was mostly an orange color, with an occasional flash of blue energy that looked a little like lightning.

Harry noticed the station now displayed on the screen seemed dead. After a few hours of dealing with the temporal fractures caused by the shockwave, the crew of the station had finally been rescued and all power and life support there had been ceased.

“ _Chakotay to the_ _Tuvok_.” The Commanders voice came in over the internal comms near the tactical station.

“Go ahead.” Tuvok responded.

“ _When you are done on the bridge, please m_ _eet me in sickbay_ _, the Doctor wishes to see us before we leave on the away mission_.” The Commander said.

“Understood.” Tuvok affirmed as he looked back down at his console to finish up his current work.

"Collision in thirty seconds." Harry called out and noticed that this seemed to even bring Tuvok’s attention to watch the center screen and even he seemed amazed at the sheer size of the approaching wall of force. Of course, Harry quickly reminded himself that Tuvok couldn't show amazement, he was a Vulcan.

Janeway suddenly stood and pointed at the screen.

"Harry, are those stars I'm seeing? She asked peering at the screen before her intently.

Harry thought he saw them too but he looked down to confirm it with the sensors. And there it was, as big as life, the entire universe. Every second that passed offered even more sensor fidelity beyond the field. Although he wasn't entirely sure how, it appeared that the Field was thinning and losing it’s cohesion very rapidly now.

"Captain, sensors are now able to scan the space outside of the..." Harry began to say, but he was interrupted by what was taking place on the view screen.

The station was being stuck by the terrible force. So much force, that all that was left of the station after a mere few seconds were tiny minute debris that fell into the field to be shred into even smaller and smaller particles themselves.

And then it was all gone as the Progenitor Field itself simply faded away.

"What happened?" Janeway asked turning to face him. Harry quickly looked over the sensor logs. There had been no signs of the field slowing or losing power, or anything of that sort. It had just suddenly vanished leaving the stars and a vast distant nebulae to be seen from the satellites video feed.

"It just dissipated captain, I'm not sure how."

Icheb moved over to Harry's station and stood beside him for a moment as he looked over the readouts.

"I believe I may have the answer captain." Icheb said looking up.

"I'm all ears." Janeway said turning to face them both.

"Seven had asked me to run scans of the Causality to further attempt to discover the origins of the Borg components on board.” Icheb explained as Janeway walked up the steps to meet the young man who had begun to move back to Sevens station. “Just before the Field wall vanished, sensors indicated that the energy cascade being generated by the _Causality’_ _s_ temporal engine began to rapidly recede in concurrent energy output. The speed of the perpetual energy cascade in the engine itself was a constant locked with the speed at which the Field had been shrinking, which is why we knew they were related. But now, with how quickly the field dispersed, the only conclusion is that the engine’s function appears to have been shut down, manually."

"Manually," Janeway said, "But that means someone is on board the Causality. Unless we think that those spiders somehow manipulated the controls themselves."

"Captain, I will inform the away team of this new development when I join them." Tuvok said as he looked up and exited his console area. He waited for her nod affirmatively at him and then entered the tubo-lift.

Harry looked down at his readouts to start a scan of the area where the Field had previously been. There he saw something strange, something that shouldn't have still been there. The sensors were showing a warp trail that abruptly ended near the planetary systems edge, where the field wall had been originally. He ran a quick comparison to verify the information.

"No time has passed." Harry said abruptly and then quickly realized he had said it out loud when he hadn't meant to.

Janeway looked up at him and then walked over towards him, followed by Icheb. Harry looked over his readouts again to make sure he was about to say what he wanted to. He then looked up as his captain moved beside him.

"Captain, Our original warp trail from when we arrived is still present and it hasn't dissipated or decayed at all. According to these readings, it's as if no time has passed."

"It would seem as though, from an outside perspective, that our ship ran into nothing and then an entire planetary system appeared." Icheb said. "If anyone is out there, they are going to be quite surprised."

"So only a few minutes have passed and that's all?" Janeway asked.

"It seems like it captain." Harry said.

Janeway walked away from the ops station and down to the center of the bridge. She quickly turned and held up her arms in an exaggerated shrug.

"Well its been a hell of a few minutes." she said with a smile.

* * *


	32. History

* * *

Chris was sitting cross-legged on a bio bed and had been staring at the spider corpse in the sample tray from across sickbay for at least five minutes. He squinted hard at it and tried to force now dormant memories to the forefront of his mind. Tobias had clearly known a great deal about these creatures, he was sure, but he could only grasp an occasional bit of information that had been transferred. The only thing Chris truly knew for sure was that he held great anger towards these ‘Gullina’.

He broke his gaze from the creature, and glanced to his right and saw that Sil seemed to have fallen asleep on the bio bed beside his. She had been there when he had regained consciousness again, and she had clearly been exhausted after all that had happened, but she had said that she wanted to stay and support Chris while he was recuperating. It was a kind gesture that had taken Chris by surprise, but he was not in a position to take that kind of camaraderie for granted. While it was true that he was among other humans, he was in many ways alone here.

His family and friends were all three hundred and seventy years in the past, and it was likely he would never see any of them again. His mother and father had likely been devastated to hear the news of his disappearance, but at the same time, they had never truly been close. On top of that, most of his friends had been only slightly more than acquaintances that he had met while working on his degree in college. Not one of them had grown to be irreplaceable in the sense of true friendship, as he had never taken the time to relax and enjoy the time he had there.

Part of him felt a sense of relief at that. He couldn’t imagine how painful it would be to have left anyone he truly cared about behind. A close friend, or even a romantic partner, would have been separated from him forever and the pain of that could have been unbearable. But Chris had had no real connections back then, not even a pet or plant he was responsible for.

But then there was the pain and anguish he had felt when seeing the memories of Tobias family in that rubble on Betazed, and realizing that no one in his life had held that kind of emotional weight.

This realization made Chris frown. His heart and mind were in contradiction because of those memories. His and Tobias’s personalities seemed to be in conflict on many levels and seemed to be bleeding into each other.

Now that Chris had felt what that kind of close connection could feel like, even though it had only been through the eyes of another mans memories, he knew that he had been missing out on something important in life. A familial or loving connection to another person was something to strive for and be cherished. He suddenly felt fairly foolish as to how much he had focused on his career.

Chris shook his head. There was no point for such thoughts as he couldn’t change any of it if he wanted. All he could do now was to be more aware of those in this time and place.

Chris looked around the room, everything here seemed new to him, but somehow familiar. He saw a panel on the wall and immediately recognized that it was for power distribution, but honestly had no idea as to how or why he knew this. The Doctor had tried to explain to him something about instincts and memories but he had been too groggy at the time to understand him fully.

He again looked over at Sil when she shifted in her sleep some and slid her arm under her cheek in a way that was all too human. With as different as her kind was to humans, there were enough similarities that he didn’t find her to be alien at all to him. And is seemed that she had been right in her choice to stay here while he recuperated, as he did truly feel more at ease with her there. In fact, he knew that if it hadn't have been for her, he wouldn't have survived the transition to this time at all.

He slid to the edge of the bio bed and sat facing the sleeping Frain woman. It was his hope that when they had time, she would be willing to tell him everything about herself and her people. He wanted to know her better, he wanted her to know all about him and Earth, and he wanted to know what having a true personal connection was like.

Behind him, the door to sickbay opened and he looked over his shoulder and saw Chakotay enter followed closely by Tuvok. Both men walked into the glass enclosed office where the Doctor was sitting at his desk.

Chris watched as the three Starfleet officers talked among themselves for a few moments. The Doctor spun his computer around to face Chakotay and Tuvok who then studied the screen intently for a moment and then started talking again.

The Doctor stood and led them out into the main area of sickbay where Chris could then hear what they were saying.

"The last incident provided me with enough information to create a counter to the toxin the arachnids impale in their victims. If you are bitten, it will hurt, but you won't lose consciousness like Seven did." The Doctor said in a hushed manner due to Sil sleeping nearby.

Chakotay tilted his head as the Doctor pushed a vial up to his neck where it made a small hiss. Tuvok was next.

"We'll take two more for Paris and Seven." Chakotay said.

Chris let his feet fall to the floor and walked over to them. Tuvok nodded to him in greeting as he approached.

"What's going on?" Chris asked.

"We are going back to the Causality. Someone there has deactivated the engine core," Chakotay replied," We need to see who it is and also see what the arachnid situation is."

Chris felt anticipation well up inside him. He wanted to go along with them, and it seemed that Chakotay noticed this in his expression.

"Doctor, is he well enough to come along?" Chakotay asked the hologram who was now standing over the arachnid studying it some more. "After all, if he's going to be with us on _Voyager_ from now on he'll need to learn to carry his own weight. And perhaps it will jog some of those memories."

The Doctor looked up and thought for a moment, he then looked down again at the spiders corpse.

"He's fine to go, beside having more memories and instincts than he had before, he's perfectly healthy." he said while he continued his work.

"Are you up for it?" Chakotay asked him holding up one of the vials.

"Very." Chris replied eagerly and tilted his head to one side.

Chakotay pressed the vial to his neck and it gave an odd sensation. It hadn't hurt but he had felt the antitoxin enter his skin.

As he turned to follow the men out of sickbay he felt a tinge of hesitation. It seemed that he was already feeling hesitance to lose the chance to look for the connection he had come to realize he was missing in his life. He turned to get one more look at Sil and to his surprise, she was actually sitting up looking directly at him.

"Be safe" she said softly and smiled.

He smiled back at her, nodded and then followed Chakotay and Tuvok out into the corridor. As they walked down the corridor, Tuvok explained their mission in more detail.

"Once in the cargo bay, we will need to fortify our position, and make sure there are no arachnids outside of the engine room.” The Vulcan said. “Due to the fact that there is still significant sensor interference in that section of the ship, Seven of Nine and I will head to the bridge and attempt to restore operation to the _Causal_ _i_ _t_ _y’_ _s_ internal sensors."

“Internal sensors can also be access from the security station on deck two section three.” Chris blurted out before he realized he was saying it. He watched as Chakotay and Tuvok both turned and looked at him. Tuvok had one eyebrow raised seemingly in question.

“It seems that bringing you along was the right choice.” Chakotay said with a smile.

Chris couldn’t even recollect the thought as it had processed in his mind, and had no idea if what he said was even correct. But if what the Doctor said was true, then this kind of thing would keep happening to him.

They all entered a turbo-lift and Tuvok continued his briefing.

"You, Commander Chakotay, and Mr. Paris, will proceed to the engine room and see if the door has held. All the time looking for signs of whomever has deactivated the engine core."

“Is it just us five that are going?” Chris asked. “If there is a large incursion of Gullina on board, would we not want a larger contingent of security with us?”

“Ten of my security officers have already beamed to the exterior of the Causality to aide the Frain military in securing the ships perimeter.” Tuvok explained. “The rest of our security personnel are remaining on board Voyager at their normal posts for the sake of security here.”

The turbo-lift arrived at it’s destination and the doors parted. After a short walk down a corridor, they once again found themselves entering the transporter room they had used earlier that day. Inside the room Chris saw that Seven and Tom were both wearing backpacks and each held large rifles.

“Here, this one has been locked to stun.” Chakotay said and held up one of the smaller phasers that they had been using on the last away mission. “It’s best that everyone on the team is armed. And from what I saw last time, you seem to know how to use it already.”

Chris nodded as they all moved into position on the pad. Across from them another crew member nodded to them, wished them luck and then activated the transporter.

* * *

  
  


Janeway sighed.

All they could do was wait. They had already gone over all the data five times, and going over it again wouldn't do any good. The fracture shockwave hadn't dissipated like the field had, and it would still impact the planet in thirteen minutes.

She knew it would likely play havoc with their systems, and she had considered having B'Elanna shut down the warp core, but it was too risky to do without the ability to eject the core if something went wrong. After all, they were partially submersed and some of the power relays were still underwater. A core shutdown now might have meant they would be without power for days because they couldn't get to the conduits if they were damaged.

On top of that, they had decided to send the away team before the wave hit, because if it somehow damaged their transporters, than no one would be able to go to the _Causality_ until they were fixed again. They needed to secure the vessel sooner than later and opted to send the team regardless. If somehow the team did get stranded because the transporters went down, then they could still exit the _Causality_ through other means, like the hanger bay or exterior hatches.

As for the rest of the planet, Harry had picked up a system wide alert that the Frain had issued, to warn their population of the approaching wave and it’s possible repercussions.

Janeway could see that the Frain were versatile and they reminded her of her own kind in a lot of ways. She wondered if humans had been so paranoid about aliens in the past and what they would have done had they been in the Frain's shoes when _Voyager_ had crashed.

She thought back to the first contact with the Vulcans and she knew that humans had been lucky they had encountered peaceful aliens first. She could only imagine what it would have been like if Klingons had come to earth first, or the Romulans. Perish the though that the Ferengi could have been humanities first contact, as they would have likely tried to buy Earth if given the chance.

Yes, for the people of Fra, the field that had been around their system had been a gift in a lot of ways. It had given them time to grow, advance, and become a warp ready culture in relative safety. But now that it was gone, their safety net was as well. She knew that within a hundred light years radius there were many other races vying for control of the region. To only list those they had themselves encountered, the Hirogen, Ledosians, Quarrens, and even the Borg had presences nearby. She only hoped the Frain were up to the universe being at their front door.

The turbo-lift at the rear of the bridge opened getting Janeway's attention. Sil and the security officer assigned to her entered and moved to the center of the upper platform. When Sil saw that Janeway sitting below, the Frain woman crossed the top of the bridge to come down the steps and around to meet her.

The captain watched as Harry looked up when Sil passed in front of him and Janeway couldn’t help but notice that he seemed to linger on the woman a moment, likely a nod to her beauty. Not only that, but Sil’s extremely light skin tones caused her to stand out even more as she was in contrast with the darker hues and tones of the bridge around her.

"Captain, is it true that the Progenitor Field has vanished?” Sil asked with pure astonishment in her voice.

"Yes, the field has fully dissipated. If you join me in my ready room, you can have a look for yourself.” Janeway said.

After Sil entered the ready room and got her first glance at the windows lining the wall, she gasped.

“Those, those tiny specks of light…” Sil said as she took in the new sky.

“Those are all the stars of other distant systems like your own.” Janeway said and watched the woman's curiosity and wonder spread across her face.

“There are so many.” Sil whispered and for a few moments said nothing more. She soon took notice that Janeway was watching her and her skin became blushed with blue hues. “Oh, I’m sorry captain, I am just in awe of it all.”

“You will hear no complaints from me. In fact I am actually glad you came up to the bridge.”Janeway admitted. “The fracture shockwave is still approaching, so I've ordered my crew to hold position at their stations. With my station is here on deck one, I was relegated to simply waiting for it to hit. But now that you are here, we can discuss a few things, and perhaps you can tell me about your people."

Sil smiled brightly, and Janeway knew she had just raised Sil's spirits even more by asking her about her people. It was apparent that Sil was proud of her peoples accomplishments and way of life.

"What exactly would you like to discuss, Captain?" Sil asked as they both sat down on the couch that lined the ready rooms window.

"I was just thinking about how your people might react to the fact that the field is now gone. Tell me, what do you think your people will do now that the universe is open to them?" Janeway asked looking out the window and up at the countless stars that were there.

"Universe. Before yesterday I wouldn't have even found myself saying that word. But now I'm astonished at the possibilities.” Sil said as she glanced out window again. “To be able to explore such a vast and wonderful expanse. Its any scientists dream."

Janeway smiled at the sentiment and Sil reminded her a bit of herself in that regard.

"Yes, but I feel I should let you know that not everywhere you go will be safe, nor the beings you encounter always peaceful or welcoming." the captain said frowning and shaking her head.

"No, I would assume not. After all, there must be millions of Toks out there." Sil said and also frowned.

Janeway thought for a moment about the madman in her brig. It was true that he reminded her of a few humans and aliens from history. In fact, she could immediately recall one mission of the Enterprise D where the first officer was stranded on a planet before first contact had taken place. The military leader of that planet had tried to force a war between what he assumed were hostile aliens and his people by making it seem like the first officer had attacked him.

It was one of many occasions where a sole individual in a place of power had attempted to sway the thoughts of an entire race. Janeway wondered if history would say that they had been lucky this time, or perhaps instead it would say that the loss of even just the Frain leaders life had been too costly a trade off for first contact.

"This may seem like a random question, but might I ask you about your names? Your people seemed interested in the fact that our names are multiple syllables long. Have none of your people ever had a name that was longer than a single sound?"

Sil tilted her head, clearly contemplating her answer.

"Well, there was one civilian who made quite a stir a decade ago. He called himself Met Roe. He had been born as just Met, but added the 'second name' as he called it, in honor of his father Roe of Internal Security Delta One who died saving another mans life."

Sil stopped a moment and looked out the window again and seemed lost in thought.

"It actually seemed like a wonderful sentiment. “She continued “A small number of Frain began to adopt names in the manner he had. But they were used mostly in close private circles. When in a public place or at work, all Frain make sure to call someone by their given name and their position of work. The work title is to further differentiate in case of similar named individuals nearby. Any deviation was seen as taboo and it has been a strong religious issue for many generations."

"Religious issue?" Janeway repeated in question.

"According to history, our gods had little need for slaves with names, but would indeed give them short identifiers. These identifiers were less names and more like simple sounds.” Sil explained. “When the gods disappeared, the people of that time had no way of knowing what to name their children beside these similar short bursts of sound. Ever since that time, my people have struggled with moving beyond the tradition. Many zealous and stringent religious Frain believe that if we stray too far from those set traditions, even with something that seems simple like the naming tradition, that our gods will return to punish us."

Janeway contemplated all that Sil was saying and it was this kind of cultural exchange that she had always found most fascinating about space exploration. It wasn't just nebulae and space anomalies, but it was also the deep histories every culture had. Each race had experienced a completely different history and had grown based upon it. And within the chorus of all the races in known space, they would need to adapt as they found that their cultures were at odds, or else there would be conflict.

“I’m curious if your sciences and your theology are separate entities, or intertwined?” the captain asked.

Sil looked down at her own wrist at the tattoo that was there.

“To be honest, I am not sure anymore. But I feel as if all Frain carry their religion within them, even if they are of those that consider science to be their primary guide.” Sil said with a mischievous smile. “Myself, I have today seen what could very well be one of my peoples gods, our creators. And yet I know that they are just mortal beings such as we, and not merely an idea to be feared.”

The klaxon sounded and the amber hue of the red alert showed from the paneling in the wall. Janeway knew that his meant the shockwave was about to hit.

“As much as I would love to continue this conversation, we should return to the bridge. I need to be there when the wave hits.” Janeway said with a frown.

They both stood and exited the ready room. Janeway moved to stand at the center of the bridge and Sil came to a halt near Chakotay’s chair.

Janeway looked to the view screen which displayed a diagram of the planet. The shockwave had collided with a portion of the planet already and was moving along its surface. On one side of them sunlight approached with the dawn, and on the other, the wave. It almost appeared as if morning would come just as the wave hit.

Sil moved beside Janeway and closed her eyes, as if to make a prayer.

"Impact with the shields in eight seconds." Harry said from the ops station.

Sil opened her eyes and whispered, "I hope he's all right."

* * *


	33. Reflections Of The Now

* * *

Christopher materialized in the same place he had during the last away mission to the _Causality_. He quickly took cover behind a crate he remembered being to his left and Tuvok quickly took place by his side. They both had their phasers at ready.

Chris looked to his right when he heard Chakotay whisper to Tom and then saw him point towards the cargo bay door. Chris peered around the crate towards the door which was open where he saw a quick movement of shadow.

He ducked quickly and motioned for Tuvok to look.

Tuvok peered over the crate and then moved out from behind the crate into a dark corner near the open stasis tube.

Tom came to join Chris behind his crate.

"Someone is over there, we're going to sneak around and take them by surprise." Tom whispered.

Chris nodded and followed Tom around the back of a storage shelf filled with large crates. Seven was already there crouched behind one of the larger crates. She nodded to them and motioned towards the door. Whoever it was that they had seen, they were still there.

Seven stood suddenly and fired her phaser rifle. There was a soft patter of what sounded like bare feet on the metal bulkhead and then another phaser shot was heard from the other side of the room. Then there was the distinct sound of someone falling to the ground.

"Its all clear." Seven said looking down at Tom and Chris who were still crouched beside her.

He and Paris both stood still holding their phasers at the ready. Chris looked towards the door to the corridor and saw that Chakotay was kneeling over someone laying just in front of it. He decided to move closer just as Tuvok passed him and leaned around the door frame to look out into the corridor.

Chris approached Chakotay’s position and was able to see who it was they had stunned. It appeared to be a Frain boy, but he appeared to be in such a poor health condition that he almost seemed like a different race altogether. The young Frain had no hair and he seemed extremely malnourished. The clothes he was wearing were sparse, appeared rag-like, and only covered a few parts of his body.

Chakotay pulled out his tricorder and began to scan the pitiful looking individual.

"His bloodstream is full of arachnid toxin." Chakotay said looking up at Seven when she crouched on the opposite side of the boy. "He can't be much more than thirteen years old."

"How did he get in here, I thought the Frain had cordoned off the ship." Chris asked and looked around.

"Someone else is approaching." Tuvok whispered suddenly and moved quickly back into the room.

Tom grabbed Chris by the arm and pulled him beside Tuvok against the wall. Chakotay and Seven moved against the wall on the opposite side of the door opening.

Outside in the corridor the soft patter of bare feet drew slowly closer.

After a moment, a second older looking Frain male with a similar pitiful appearance to the first came into view. However, there was something quite noticeably different about this Frain compared to the first they had encountered. There on his back, was an arachnid, attached by its legs which were wrapped around the mans torso and met in the front like an extra pair of ribs.

The Frain man was silently looking down at the fallen boy when Tuvok fired his phaser and dropped him as well.

The spider that was attached to the man squealed and released his grip on him at mid collapse. The momentum cause the creature to land on its back and it quickly flipped to right itself.

Chris raised his phaser and fired, but missed. Tom, who was beside him fired as well and hit the target square in the center of its body. The impact alone crushed the spiders exoskeleton with a horrible cracking sound and appeared to kill it.

Seven quickly closed the cargo bay door manually by continuously raising and lowering a handle inside a panel to the doors right.

Once it was closed, Chakotay began to scan the man that had entered with the spider attached to him.

"It looked almost like that spider was controlling him, did you see the blank expression on his face?" Tom said kneeling beside Chakotay.

"Yes, it looks like it was biting into him here," Chakotay said pointing to the mans spinal cord near the neck. "His nervous system seems to be filled with that toxin as well. It must double some kind of controlling agent."

"Fascinating." Tuvok commented, "It seems we have found how these arachnids deactivated the engine core. They must have used these Frain as hosts so they could utilize they're opposable thumbs and fingers, something that's required to use the computers and machinery created by bipeds."

Chakotay's tricorder beeped.

"The shockwave is approaching.” The commander said. “We will have to wait here until it passes. It should only take a few minutes. Take up defensive positions on that door, just in case we have any more visitors."

* * *

  
  


Janeway watched as the deck plating in front of her unexpectedly bent and distorted. At that moment she knew the shields hadn't protected them from the shockwave’s effects as they had hoped they might.

She felt a violent force throw her to the floor with Sil landing beside her. As far as she could tell, Harry must have been thrown too because she heard him groan from the ops station.

She couldn't feel her body for a moment but she still managed to move and climb into her chair. As Janeway righted herself and faced forward, she could see Sil was still prone on the floor in front of her and was attempting to move into a kneeling position.

"The shields must be amplifying the shockwave's effect!" Janeway yelled as a panel in the engineering station to their right exploded.

Janeway watched a piece of debris from the panel fly through the air and strike Sil on the forehead.

Then she saw the after image of the same thing happen again, and then once more a third time.

After the third after image faded she saw that Sil was now laying motionless on the floor with blue blood trickling into her white hair.

Janeway heard her own voice before she had a chance to speak and then reacted by saying what she had heard herself say. "Medical emergency, Bridge!"

This command was then immediately followed by another copy of her own voice repeating what she had just said.

It appeared that everything happening on the bridge was echoing itself in time. Sometimes effects were preempting actions, and other times actions were duplicating and following what had preceded with another copy. And it was likely this same effect was happening all over the ship.

“Harry, can you deactivate the shields?” Janeway yelled, attempting to overtake the sheer chaos of sounds on the bridge.

After no one responded she turned and saw Harry was draped over his console, also motionless.

This day wasn't going at all as she planned. She tried to move as best as she could in these circumstances but just as it had been when she had spoken she saw herself move before she did. It was almost as if she was following an out of phase version of herself. The effect on her body was enough to make her immediately sick to her stomach as it felt as if she was as she was moving between zero G and two G’s over and over.

Under her feet the deck plating was still distorting and seemed out of sync with her which caused her to stumble and fall landing beside Sil. She crawled beside the Frain woman and checked her pulse which was strong but erratic. She wasn’t able to tell if the woman's heartbeat was slowing down or speeding up, as it was also likely being affected by the duplication effect of the shockwave. From where she now was she could also see that there was a large gash on Sil’s forehead, and it was deep.

She heard her comm badge chirp, and she quickly tapped it.

"Janeway here." She said, her voice trailing and echoing itself a few times.

She thought she heard B'Elanna's voice, but it was overlapped by her own voice as it had echoed.

"Please wait a moment and repeat." she said and waited.

 _"Captain, the shields are holding the waves effect inside the ship,_ _but_ _I am_ _going to have to short the system to_ _deactivat_ _e them_ _!"_ said five or six layers and copies of B'Elanna's voice.

"Understood!" Janeway said trying not to vomit.

After a few moments another console at the conn station in front of Janeway exploded and she saw an after image inside the flash it created. There above her was the faded image of herself still standing next to Sil, like they had been before the wave hit. The image reflected in the floating sparks for a moment and then faded as they fell to the bulkhead.

Then the turbulence was gone and the feeling of shattered time stopped.

For a moment all Janeway could do was stare at the spot she had seen the image of Sil and herself reflected in the sparks. It had been so real, so close, that she wondered if she could have reached up and touched her own hand as a warning to what was about to happen.

Smoke pouring out of a nearby console caused her to cough and brought her back into the present.

The sound of someone moving behind her caught her attention and she looked over her shoulder to see Harry had regained his footing and was rubbing his forehead. She was glad he for the most part seemed alright.

As for the bridge itself, it looked like it had been hit by a storm, and she imagined the rest of the ship didn't look any better.

* * *


	34. Villainous

* * *

_Villains_

Tok stood in the center of the brig where an unconscious alien lay before him.

He had been surprised when the energy field that was imprisoning him dispersed suddenly and the room itself seemed to shift and ripple. Even so, he had been able to take advantage of the situation and had leapt forward onto the guard who was distracted by the events happening around them.

There had been a struggle, but Tok had been able to force the security officer into the wall and knock him out. While it was true that Tok had been trained to fight those of a taller stature, it had been many years since he had been in any kind of physical combat.

After the fight, a few more seconds passed and the room stopped rippling and everything seemed to return to normal. The energy field that had held him had even returned, but he was now on the outside of it. Tok grabbed the weapon off the aliens side holster and looked over how it worked. If anything was certain to Tok, it was that he knew weapons, andhe was sure he could figure this out without any trouble.

The weapon seemed to have two settings, each with its own multiple power levels. One setting was for kill and one was for incapacitate, but he knew he only needed the kill setting.

He looked down at the unconscious security officer and contemplated finishing him off, but quickly decided to leave the alien with the guilt of his failure, a punishment worse than death.

Tok moved quickly towards the door and it opened for him.

"They need to work on their security." He muttered to himself.

Out in the corridor, which was empty as far as he could tell, he saw that smoke was billowing from a few panels in the walls. Something had clearly just damaged the alien vessel and Tok couldn't have been happier about that fact. As far as he was concerned, they deserved everything that was coming to them.

He pressed himself flat up against the wall and used it as cover as he moved forward. After a few moments he heard talking up ahead and came to a stop.

He realized that he could understand what the approaching voices were saying. He wasn't sure how they had done it, but the fact that all of these vile beings could speak his peoples language was proof enough they had been preparing this for a long time. It was likely they even had spies hiding inside their government already. He wondered now if perhaps Sil hadn’t been converted, but instead that she had been one of them all along.

Cutting his musings short, a short female alien came into view ahead of him, a child perhaps. The young alien was wearing a pink outfit and had long sandy hair, and at her side was a much taller female alien who had a similar facial appearance, which made it likely to be the child's mother.

Both aliens froze when they saw him.

* * *

  
  


When the wave hit, Chris thought that nothing seemed to be happening at first. Nothing around them seemed to change and he didn't physically feel any effects either. He then glanced to his right and he noticed that a flashing indicator on Chakotay's tricorder seemed to speed up and slow down significantly. Chakotay himself also seemed to be moving quickly in very subtle ways as he crouched against the nearby wall.

The rest of the room however seemed unaffected.

Movement on his left caused Chris to glance toward Tuvok who had been crouched in the corner. The Vulcan appeared as if he was about to stand but then vanished from view completely in a quick motion and then reappeared just as quickly holding something he hadn't been a moment ago.

"Alright, it's passed." Chakotay said, breaking the silence.

"Huh, We've been through worse than that.” Tom said seeming almost disappointed. He then shrugged and donned a smile. “Nebulae, alien armada's, pulsars, even the creation of the universe thanks to the Q." Paris said with a laugh.

"Q?" Chris asked, he had a feeling he was missing something.

Chakotay grabbed Tom's shoulder and gave him a sturdy look. "Not so loud... he may hear you." The commander said, and then after a moment of trying to be serious, he also smiled.

"Commander,” Tuvok interjected and held up the object in his hand. “Seven's phaser rifle. I noticed it hit the ground beside me during the wave anomaly."

"Where is she?" Chakotay asked looking around. Tom, Chris and Tuvok all began to look as well, but she was nowhere in sight.

"She was here before the wave hit, so she couldn't have gone far." Tom said holding up his tricorder to scan.

"Over here." Tuvok said from behind a few containers.

Chris followed Chakotay and Tom to where Tuvok was crouched and peering inside some sort of hatchway.

"Some kind of Jefferies Tube." Chakotay said and also peered inside, "I wonder what compelled her to go in there."

Tuvok reached down to the floor and then raised his finger which was covered in a blue residue. "It appears that she may have not had much of a choice."

Chakotay aimed his wrist beacon and shed some light down into the passageway which curved out of sight in the direction of the engine room.

"It seems we didn't do as good a job sealing off the engine room as we hoped we had." Chakotay said as he readied his phaser, "Tuvok and I are going to find her. Tom, you and Chris stay here and keep this area secure for beam out, and keep an eye on our guests over there."

Chris looked over toward the two unconscious Frain they had subdued earlier. The two frail looking individuals had remained out during the entirety of the wave impact, and appeared to still be under the effects of the phaser stun.

"Yes commander." Tom replied.

After Chakotay and Tuvok entered the opening and vanished from sight Tom placed his tricorder on a crate near the opening and set some controls.

"I've set this to warn us if anything approaches from this passageway." Tom said.

Chris nodded and then looked behind himself. He decided it was time to get a few of his questions answered, so he walked over to the still closed stasis pod that was beside the one he had emerged from. He wanted to know what was inside. Paris must have realized his intentions because he had followed him over and had begun to analyze the control panel. After unsuccessfully trying to interact with the surface, Tom placed a device upon it and it lit up.

Chris found himself thinking on impulse that it must be some kind of emergency battery.

Now displayed on the panel was the word 'Error'.

"It seems whoever or whatever was in here wasn't as lucky as you were." he said pushing a button that said, 'Cycle'. The tube slowly slid open and inside was something Chris hadn’t expected to see. Decomposed and slumped over itself was a human body wearing the same kind of uniform Tobias had been. Around its torso was wrapped a dead Gullina.

Tom opened the backpack Seven had placed on the floor before she had disappeared and retrieved another tricorder. Chris watched the lieutenant as he then began to scan the corpses and the stasis pod in which they were within.

* * *

  
  


Tuvok was one meter in front of Chakotay and they were making slow progress in the less than normally sized access tube. Tuvok surmised that the ship seemed to be of a minimalist design. This also explained the size of the bridge and how it was designed.

"Commander, I believe the Causality was designed in a way to allow it to be constructed faster and using less materials.” Tuvok said looking back towards the commander. “Perhaps a product of war or waning resources?"

Chakotay looked up at Tuvok and smiled, "Seems to me that whatever the purpose of this ship they still should have made these Jefferie’s tubes slightly bigger."

Tuvok looked forward again. He would never understand the human need to complain about the unchangeable. But nonetheless he understood the commanders discomfort.

Up ahead Tuvok heard a skittering sound. He lifted his light beacon and aimed his phaser in the direction they were crawling. There he saw what looked like thick webbing, but it seemed almost like it was alive, as it was pulsating slightly.

"They work fast, don't they." Chakotay said from behind. "Lets take this left passage."

Tuvok aimed his light beacon behind him and to the left and saw there was indeed a junction that he hadn't seen. He found it odd that he had somehow missed it. Perhaps his own thoughts had preoccupied him more than he should have allowed. He pushed his thoughts aside and tried to concentrate on the mission.

Chakotay moved into the leftward opening and took point. Tuvok looked in the other direction towards the webbing once more and saw that it seemed to be moving closer to them, expanding slowly along the walls of the passage.

"Commander, I estimate that webbing will reach this junction in a matter of minutes." Tuvok reported.

Chakotay looked back towards him and frowned. "We'll have to hurry then."

* * *


	35. Within The Web

* * *

Seven hung from a large web of adhesive polymer which was slowly wrapping itself around her body as if it had a mind of its own. Her new living prison was strung between the catwalks in the engine room.

One of the arachnids had taken advantage of the shockwaves altered states of time and grabbed her from behind.

Even though she was much larger than the arachnid, it had wrapped itself around her torso and immobilized her in one quick motion. Then another Gullina, as Mr. Moss had called them, had then started to drag her and her attached captor away by her ankles. She could tell that the creatures seemed to be communicating in an unknown means for they had made no sound during the attack but had still moved as a single unit.

She had yelled for the others to help her but they had seemed frozen. The localized temporal shifts had clearly been effecting them and had prevented the rest of the away team from being able to hear her.

Now, as she hung within her new prison, she took a moment to analyze the situation below her.

The engine room had significantly less arachnids present than Chakotay had reported. It was likely that the creatures indeed still had full access to the rest of the ship, as was proven by her attackers having been present in the cargo bay. This was made even more apparent by the fact that she could see that the engine room bulkhead that Chakotay and B’Elanna had forced shut, was now fully open.

Off to her right in the middle of the room, the strange energy cascade still hovered inside the now dormant engine core. The spin of the two main engine rings had ceased, but clearly some of the energy that had been created was still present, perhaps caused by irregular or improper shut down procedures.

She focused on the energy still gathered there, and her ocular implants seemed to be picking up atmosphere venting from within the anomaly. She surmised that Chakotay’s hypothesis that this energy cascade was a doorway to elsewhere had been correct. It clearly led to the place the spiders had come from. The question now was how to close it, and if more arachnids could still come through until they did.

None had emerged while she had been present, and only a few arachnids remained within the engine room currently. But even so, the Gullina were not alone. Scattered around the room were various Frain individuals, some under the control of their attached masters and others simply appeared to be following orders on their own.

None said a word and each performed tasks at any machine or console which appeared to still have emergency power.

One female Frain who was about Sil's height and build walked by below Seven and drew her attention. The clearly malnourished woman was covered in multiple smaller arachnids, perhaps Gullina young. Each had wrapped around a different limb and one was around her neck. Seven wondered if these younger arachnid needed to work together to control the woman, as they hadn’t fully matured yet to do it completely on their own.

Suddenly, Seven felt a sharp pain in her leg. She looked down toward her leg as much as she could while still adhered to the webbing. There she saw that one of these smaller Gullina had attached itself and had bitten into her thigh.

She wondered how long the doctors anti-venom would last.

Not too far away, the female Seven had been watching suddenly collapsed. Seven tried to shift her position to see if the Frain was OK but she could only see her legs from behind one of the workstations.

This commotion drew the attention of the biggest Gullina in the room which crawled quickly over consoles and Frain worker alike as if they were not there. When it reached the downed woman, it grabbed her by the ankles and began to lift her, attached Gullina and all, up to an adjoining polymer to that which Seven was now being held.

The female Frain suddenly seemed fully aware of her surroundings now and was staring at Seven with wide eyes. It was possible that this woman was accustomed to being controlled by Gullina, and that meant it was more likely Seven’s presence which was bringing her such awe now.

The woman moved her lips to speak but seemed to weak to generate any sound.

The smaller spiders that were attached to the woman began to detach their grip and started to scurry about and move to different sections of the woman's body.

The woman then screamed in pain, her weakness clearly being overwhelmed by agony.

Seven couldn't help but realize what was happening. The Frain woman was being eaten alive by the young. And it appeared that the adhesive polymer was were the feeding took place.

Seven hazarded a look down at the spider on her leg and there beside it she saw another moving into position on her hip.

Seven closed her eyes. She now knew the Gullina’s controlling venom was the least of her worries. It seemed the Gullina released their victims from their dormant state while they ate them, and due to the fact they must have realized that Seven was immune to their control, they had clearly decided to skip to the eating phase of the procedure.

It seemed the Doctor's anti-venom was to be her doom.

* * *

  
  


Chakotay heard a gut wrenching scream up ahead and began to crawl faster through the small access tube. Even though he was getting steadily closer to the obvious cries of pain, he couldn’t tell if the source of those screams was Seven.

As he made the final turn he found himself peering out of a raised hatchway into the main section of the Engine room. Tuvok came to a halt behind him, as there was no room for the Vulcan to advance until Chakotay exited the access tube.

Chakotay quickly peered about the room to get a handle on the situation that lay before him. Across the large bulk of the room hanging on a giant web strewn between two catwalks, was Seven of Nine and a Frain woman. He could now see that the source of the screaming seemed to be the Frain woman and she appeared to be writhing in pain. He couldn't make out exactly why the woman was in pain but Seven seemed to be agitated as well.

He then saw Seven take notice of him and she became very still. She seemed to be trying to convey something to him without saying anything aloud. Maybe that was it entirely. The Gullina that were around the room didn't know he was there and she knew any act on her part would give him away. They had an element of surprise, and it was best to not waste it.

Chakotay motioned to Tuvok to be as quiet as possible. He then peered again out from the hole and looked around to get eyes on every living thing in the room. None of the arachnids appeared to be near him. There was however a Frain man using a console upon the raised catwalk directly below him. Thankfully the poorly clothed man seemed to not notice the head peering at him from about a meter up.

Chakotay formulated a plan in his head and readied his phaser. He would first attempt to remove any immediate danger to Seven, then he would cross to a closer position so he could phaser the webbing in a way to lower her safely to the ground. Tuvok would know to lay down cover fire once he made his way out of the access hatch.

With his plan in mind, he fired at the Gullina closest to Seven and it collapsed under the force of the beams impact.

With this, the rest of the room seemed to come to life in an instant. Many Gullina attached to Frain released their hold and darted into hiding which left many Frain still under the control of the venom to begin to sway back and forth mindlessly.

Chakotay couldn't tell if this desperate fleeing the Gulinna had performed was because they were afraid, or if they were taking up a more tactical position. In either case, this was his chance.

Chakotay quickly dropped down from the hatch and pushed aside the Frain man who was there without any real reaction. He then quickly ran along the raised catwalk to where he remembered seeing a gangway to the other side of the room, but he realized too late that it was gone. He was sure it had been here the last time they had been aboard.

He heard movement above him and he quickly looked up where he then saw the missing gangway. It appeared to have been torn free from its anchors and raised to the ceiling by the same kind of sticky polymer that now held Seven.

A trap.

Chakotay quickly turned to return to the hatch, but he knew that it was likely already too late. He was surrounded with nowhere to go.

Tuvok then began to fire at the arachnids surrounding Chakotay and it gave him a moment to think, but would it be enough? He had to think fast and the Gullina were coming from all sides, except one. Perhaps that was the answer.

The open area where the gangway had been was clear, mainly due to the fact it was now only open air above the engine core which sat four meters below him. The distance to the platform on the other side of the span seemed too far for him to traverse buthe felt his only option may be to jump for it.

The only issue here was that if he fell, he would likely fall into the energy flux that had somehow remained open within the center of the engine core. He had no idea what would happen if he entered it. Would he be vaporized from the energy output, or would he traverse the doorway the same way the arachnids had? There was no way to know.

He looked up at Seven who’s own situation was seeming more and more desperate by the second, and he made a choice.

"Seven, cut yourself free!" Chakotay yelled to her as he tossed his phaser in her direction. It landed and stuck to the webbing a few inches from her left hand. He had no idea if she would be able to reach it, but he had taken the risk. He knew that if he fell she would likely need his phaser more than he would, especially if he was vaporized.

Chakotay looked one last time at the approaching mass of arachnid behind him, their numbers growing ever still, and then he turned to make the leap.

He had a short run up to the edge and threw himself forward with enough inertia that he felt he would likely make it across, but just as his feet left the catwalk, an unseen arachnid grabbed at his legs from underneath.

Because of this he felt his trajectory change.

He wasn't going to make it.

* * *

  
  



	36. Fight or Flight

* * *

Seven watched in horror as Chakotay fell into the energy flux and vanished in a flash of light, followed immediately by the Gullina that had attempted to grab at his leg, which also vanished into the light. She quickly looked toward Tuvok who had also been watching and locked eyes with him. The stalwart Vulcan only hesitated a moment and then again began to fire at anything that moved.

Seven quickly looked toward the Frain woman beside her and saw that the Gullina young had stopped eating her and had fled. The woman still seemed hysterical, but Seven knew that with the Gullina preoccupied, now would be the best time for them to attempt an escape.

Using what strength she could muster, Seven twisted her body to her right toward the weapon Chakotay had thrown her. Thankfully the webbing partially allowed her to move even if it didn’t give way enough to free her. She was able to grasp her right hand around the phaser and press the fire button. The beam passed directly along the webs edge above her and burned it slightly, but it clearly did not do any significant damage.

She readjusted her aim and fired once more. This time she must have severely damaged the webs hold on the ceiling as it slowly began to droop and release it’s hold on the two captives. Whatever was controlling the strange conscious-like movement of the web, must have also been severed by her attack as some of the web unfurled and spasmed as it fell. Slowly, she and the Frain woman were gently placed upon the raised platform below them.

Quickly Seven began to tear what remained of the webbing from her body, and noticed the Frain woman was doing the same. It was possible that the remainder of the dying web above them could fall at any moment and trap them beneath it, so haste was important.

Suddenly a phaser blast passed by Seven's left shoulder and she heard a shattering crack behind her. Turning she saw a dead arachnid in the corner. She looked up and attempted to nod to Tuvok. However, Tuvok seemed to be preoccupied with something in the crawlspace behind him.

"We can't get out this way, its being blocked by webbing." He yelled to her as he dropped from the opening he had been perched.

Seven grabbed the Frain woman by her arm and started to pull her away from the falling web and she began to consider their options. Below them on the main floor, Gullina were scurrying about as Tuvok laid down fire. Even so, there were only two or three of the creatures between them and the large door which led out into the corridor.

The woman behind her started to say something in her own language and tried to pull away from Sevens grip.

"We have to get out of here," Seven forcefully said to her reluctant companion and hoped that the translator in her combadge would do it’s job now that the woman had spoken. The woman seemed to sober some and nodded to her, affirming that it had.

Tuvok skillfully leapt from the raised platform on the opposite side of the room and upon landing began to make his way towards the door out to the corridor as well.

Seven and her reluctant companion reached the ladder to the lower floor and she provided cover fire as the Frain woman climbed down. Once her charge was safely to the floor below, Seven climbed onto the ladder and dropped to the floor below, skipping the need to climb. They then quickly started toward the door.

Tuvok met them in the middle of the room and was providing them cover fire as they passed him. The three of them all passed out of the doorway into the corridor, which appeared to be free of arachnids for the time being.  
  
They were about to continue forward but Seven and Tuvok’s combadges both chirped in unison and stopped them in their tracks when they heard the voice that followed.  
  
“…ven, Tuvok… hear me?” Chakotay's voice could be heard through severe static.

Seven shared a look with Tuvok and they both looked back toward the engine core. There was no question now that Chakotay had survived the transition through the energy cascade.

“Commander, This is Tuvok, what is your situation?” The Vulcan replied after tapping his combadge.

There was no response.

“Perhaps the interference on our end is preventing our transmissions form reaching him.” Seven suggested. “What should we do?”

Tuvok seemed to weigh the options as he looked to the Frain woman and then looked down the corridor away from the engine room.

“We must get to safety first. It is likely then that we could return with a larger force and perform a rescue.” Tuvok said flatly.

Seven grimaced. She knew very well that Chakotay was only in the situation he was in because he had attempted to save her. She could not in good conscience leave him and return later in hopes of better odds to save him. Her humanity, such as it was, nagged at her to do something now, before it was too late.

“What if the energy dissipates and there is no way to reach him later.” Seven replied, “Perhaps we should do both, retreat and attempt a rescue.”

“What is it that you are suggesting?” Tuvok raised his eyebrow.

Seven looked down at Tuvok’s waist and saw his tricorder attached there. She didn’t really feel that she had time to argue chain of command or which option would be the best, so instead she quickly grabbed Tuvok’s tricorder from his waist and ran back into the engine room.

“Seven!” Tuvok yelled from behind her.

Seven didn’t stop to respond, instead she simply kept running toward the core with purpose. She activated the tricorder and set it to actively scan and take readings of the doorway of light before her. If she was going to do this, she wanted to make sure she took as many readings as she could.

Then she leapt forward into the unknown.

* * *

  
  


The Doctor was working quickly. He had arrived on the bridge wearing his mobile emitter and was kneeling beside Sil assessing her injuries.

Behind him, the Doctor could hear the Captain pacing, which in the Doctor's experience was never a good sign. He noticed a quick shuffle of movement as she stumbled slightly on a piece of debris, but she had been able to catch herself on her center chair.

"Captain, I suggest you try to calm down, you are showing signs of stress related fatigue." he said while searching his database for the correct procedure to repair the wound on Sil's forehead. Her species had been unfamiliar to him and absent from his database, but since they had arrived here he had become quite familiar with their anatomy. For the most part, Frain seemed almost human in form and function, but the apparent mixture with the Gullina genome had given them a few glaring differences.

One of the major differences he had cataloged was the types of blood cells present in the Frain circulatory system. What were normally red blood cells in Humans, were instead blue blood cells, much like that found in spiders, octopus and a few other animals on Earth. Having a haemocyanin based circulatory system rather than a haemoglobin one meant that instead of iron, the Frain bloodstream was full of copper.

Because of this fact, it was likely that Frain society had very little disease as their blood was able to quickly coagulate and prevent infections from spreading within them. So not only did this account for the color of their blood when they were wounded, it also accounted for the efficient healing that he had seen after working on his two recent Frain patients.

However, most curious of all was that along side these blue blood cells and the normal white ones, he had discovered yet another type of blood cell, one he had never encountered before. The third type of blood cell, which was of a gray color, seemed to transmit bio-electricaldata to the brain not unlike that which the nervous system did. In fact, it seemed almost like a backup or parallelto that system. This meant that if the spinal column was severed, it was entirely likely that the subject could still move their body, just at slightly reduced capacity and speed.

This secondary system likely gave the Frain the much faster reflexes when both the spine and their blood cells were working in conjunction with each other. What’s more, is that it seemed apparent that all of these biological boons had been genetically engineered into the Frain long ago.

"Doctor, can you help her?" Harry asked as he lifted a piece of debris off of the conn station's control panel so he could assess the damage there.

"It's too early to tell, I need to get her to sickbay." The Doctor said as he closed his medical tricorder and prepared to stand.

Sil stirred slightly and seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness. She then raggedly whispered something aloud.

The Captain had apparently also heard what Sil had whispered, because she grabbed his shoulder and gave him a look of sadness and despair. "Help her, do whatever it takes." she said to him and then turned and walked towards her ready room.

The Doctor looked down at his patient as she continued to breath weakly. He waved Crewman Chell over to help him lift the stretcher they had already placed her upon. As they hoisted her she whispered again.

The Doctor frowned. Sil had repeated the same few words which the captain had reacted to with such serious emotion a moment before, and he understood why. His own friendship with Kes, and later his work with Seven on retraining her human emotions had given him all new perspectives on personal connection. His program had expanded so much in this aspect that he didn’t even feel like a hologram most of the time when he was with those he valued. So he perfectly understood why what Sil had said had affected the Captain in such a profound way.  
  
He planned on giving Sil the chance to say it again.

* * *

Harry hesitantly chimed the captains ready room door.

"Come." He heard the captain say after a moment.

He frowned to himself and gripped the PADD in his hand tightly. He breathed outwardly through his nose and then stepped forward knowing that it was his job to be the bearer of bad news.

The door before him hissed open at a slightly slower speed than usual, as if to make the point that things were indeed as bad as he knew they were.

Upon entering he could see that the captain was sitting on the couch which lined the windows of her ready room. She seemed lost in thought as she was staring out over the ocean water, all the while biting the nail of a finger on her left hand.

Harry had seen the captain this despondent only a few times before and he had made sure to never say anything about it to anyone, not even the captain herself. He knew that she wanted to be a symbol of hope, and commitment to survive more than anything else, so he simply let it fall into distant memory. It was his duty to make sure his captain knew she had succeeded in bringing him that kind of hope.

She looked up at him, and then brought her eyes to rest on the PADD in his hand. His gut churned as she did this, but he hid that fact from his face as best he could.

"Is that the damage report?" she asked him and held out her hand. He quickly handed it to her without a word.

He watched as his captain briefly looked it over. He flinched slightly when she suddenly lobbed it across the ready room where it landed hard on her desk and slid off the other side.

She didn’t say anything for a long moment and he contemplated asking to be dismissed, but before he could she looked up at him.

"I don't know Harry, everything was starting to look up, and then this happened.” she said and stood to her feet. “Sil didn't ask for any of this, none of the Frain did. And quite frankly neither did we."

Harry didn’t know what to say, so he simply watched her as she walked the length of the room. He realized that normally she would be talking to Chakotay or even Tuvok, but right now he was all she had, so he should probably say something.

He looked down at his uniform and saw that it was covered in soot and pieces of tiny debris, a similar state to that of his captains. The room around them seemed just as harried and full of damage. His heart sank again for a moment but he quickly thought back to previous times things had been this bad. They had always been able to persevere and bounce back.

She turned to face him again and he searched for the words that would be helpful to her.

"Captain, I know you will get us through this," he said, “You always do.”

Even though he truly believed it, Harry couldn’t help but wince inwardly at his own words, as he knew they were likely coming off as borderline platitudes at this point.

Still, the captains face shifted into a smile. She then turned again to look out over the water outside the window and said something almost in a whisper.

"Captain?" Harry queried to let her know he hadn’t quite heard what she had said.

"Did you happen to hear what Sil whispered on the bridge?" She asked without turning to face him.

Harry had indeed heard her Sil whisper something on the bridge while the Doctor was looking over her, but he hadn't been able to make out exactly what.

"No, Captain." he replied.

Captain Janeway then turned and smiled at him again. But before she could say anything more the comm channel chirped.

“ _Crewman_ _Mendez_ _to_ _the captain_ _.”_

"Janeway here." Janeway replied and gave Harry a questioning look.

“ _Captain, I was surveying damage on_ _deck four and found Ensign Parson unconscious in the Brig._ _It appears that_ _his_ _prisoner_ _has escaped and taken_ _h_ _is_ _phaser.”_

Janeway exchanged a shocked glance with Harry and Harry felt suddenly overwhelmed. They apparently couldn't catch a break and he knew the captain was feeling the same way.

"Understood, security teams, intruder alert." The captain said causing the red alert klaxon to sound once before becoming silent.

* * *

Next Chapter Estimated Release Date : Around Christmas


	37. Authors Notes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome, you have reached the end of what is currently uploaded for this story.  
> Please check back again later to see if a new chapter has been added!  
> You can check the bottom of the last chapters page to see the expected release date for the next chapter.
> 
> Or you can continue reading the Authors notes below! Or take a look at the update notes below that to see if I have changed anything in what you have already read.

**\- Authors Notes -**

Greetings! Welcome to the section where I talk about the process I have gone through writing the story you have just read.

 **History** : (Caution, contains light to heavy 'future' story spoilers.)

In 2003 I had just graduated high school and at the time I was doing a lot of writing, poetry mostly. But I wanted to really dip my toes into writing long form narratives and novels. In all honesty I wanted to write a brand new IP but doing that takes a lot more effort and commitment than I had time for back then. So, in an effort to see if I was even capable of such, I decided to just focus on something that already had a lot of history and canon in place that I could draw from. It had to be something that I knew well enough too. So I decided on Star Trek Voyager as my canvas. The show had ended a couple years prior so I didn't have to worry much about the canon changing any as I wrote.

Back then I had never read other peoples fan writings or even heard of the term fan-fiction, but as it goes, I started to write one. I wanted to make sure the structure of the story made sense, so I always referenced a novel or two I had from the voyager book series so that I stuck to proper story flow. At first, like some writers do, I had issues with wanting to change perspective mid scene (IE, have Janeway think something internally, then one line later have Chakotay think something internally), and I knew I had to work on it. At least in this aspect, since then, I would like to think I have properly learned that skill.

When it comes to the plot and story arc, I have always loved time travel, and I really wanted to do something with that, so I focused on one of the episodes where Voyager dealt with that. The Season three two parter, 'The Futures End' was my inspiration.

Now, when it comes to all of the Star Trek novels I've read, the antagonist is always from outside Voyagers Crew, (an alien threat, or some kind of anomaly) so of course I would have to make Original Characters, and alien races, etc. But I also wanted my protagonist to be an original character while still leaving Voyagers mainline crew to be the torch bearers of the story, as it were. But of course, the simple course most fan fiction writers would go with would be that they wrote themselves (or a fictional version of themselves) into the story, but I didn't want that per se. What I wanted was for the reader to be able to relate to the protagonist, so I decided to make the hero from around our time. In the original draft Chris was much younger, was from 2003 and not related to any canon characters. But as I wrote and fleshed out what my story arc would be, I changed it to 2007, made him older and added a couple in canon characters that he knew or was related to.

When I had originally wrote Rain Robinson's part in the first chapter, she was only a high school teacher and didn't witness Chris actually vanish, or even see the combadge that he finds that reminds her of Tom Paris. She had simply been added as more of an Easter egg, as it were. But as recently as this year, I changed her arc so that she was an active participant in the sequence and left it open so I could actually have her be in more of the story later on if I wanted. (After all, I have planned for three books, so there is room to get her in there, and I think I know how I will do it.)

As you can probably tell, since 2003 was almost two decades ago, I have written and re-written this story so many times, it actually kept slowing my progress in adding new chapters. After all, when you change parts of a stories earlier narrative to be more fleshed out, you end up having to change everything that happens later to account for those new details. The first time I actively wrote the story, It was wholly different and ended around chapter twenty or so. The next time I wrote on it I changed what happened in the first three chapters and ended up having to rewrite a few later ones as well. I've never been good at 'outlining' and until recently, never took the time to do it for this story. But as of writing this, I have the timeline figured out, and the general idea of where I want to get to by stories end. All I have left open for myself is HOW I get there. I even went so far as to take the time to figure out what each chapters date, time and converted stardates are, so that I can make sure the story flow is correct and that it fits between the shows episodes 'Homestead' and 'Renaissance Man' (which is a window of about 8 days, so I gave myself 5 'in story' days to work the story into.) Of course, the story having time travel, and time distortions involved help me keep some events in a bubble as it were, and not have to rush things.

I would like to now give an example of how the story looked from a draft in 2011 when compared to the ones I have now, to show you how things have changed.

**Part of Chapter 4s Opening, circa 2011 draft**

> “Explain what you mean by, appeared.” Wro queried.
> 
> “It was either traveling faster than our satellites could detect, or it was using some sort of jamming or stealth technology.”
> 
> “We have determined it to be constructed of a more advanced technology than our own, since our scanners can not penetrate the barrier the craft has erected. However, before the barrier had been put in place, we were able to scan the craft and we detected many alloys in the surface of the craft that are not present on our elemental table. I calculated at least twelve of these such elements. That means these elements did not originate anywhere on our planet’s within the field, so neither did the craft.
> 
> “So it is definitely of alien origin, that is what I needed to know, thank you all, continue your analysis and report back in four hours.” Wro said and nodded his head to each of his staff as they stood and walked out of the room.

**Part of Chapter 4's Opening, Final Draft, circa 2020**

> "Explain what you mean by, appeared." Wro queried.
> 
> "It was either traveling faster than our satellites could detect, or it was using some sort of jamming or stealth technology.” she added to fill his query.
> 
> Chief of Defense Tok chimed in next, addressing Ret. “Have you determined the threat or technological level of the vessel?”
> 
> Ret turned to look at Sil offering that she would know better, so she answered the question, “It appears to be constructed of a more advanced technology than our own, apparent by the fact our scanners can not penetrate the barrier the craft has erected. However, before the barrier had been put in place we were able to scan the craft temporarily and we detected many alloys in the surface of the craft that are not present on our elemental table. I calculated at least twelve of these such elements. That means these elements did not originate from anywhere within the field, so therefore, neither did the craft.”
> 
> Wro turned to the Kai, Chief of Civil Discourse who sat on his left. “Broadcast to the populace that no attempts should be made by anyone to approach the craft without first being directed to do so. Order all civilians and non-essential government personnel to remain indoors until further notice.”

As you can see by this example, back then I wasn't even using "said" statements very much, so it was hard to follow who was talking. I'm even surprised by this looking back on it now. On top of this, as you can see by the abrupt ending of the scene in the original draft, I was not very good at pacing a chapter either. Now, Leader Wro addresses more of his people over the course of the meeting, and the ending is drawn out more naturally.

All in all, a writer will always want to improve their work. Heck, even writing all of this out has made me see a typo here, or a better used word there. But I am doing what I can to keep pushing forward and not stall out, so that I can finally move the story along and finish it. Two decades is long enough for even me to wait to find out what happens. And I am the one writing it. XD

I would like to say however, that when I reach chapter 40, I will for the first time in ten or so years, be writing completely new story and not just updating or adding to what is already there. I am afraid that when I get there I may fall back into my desire to go back and rewrite again, but in a way, publishing my story here is my own way of forcing myself to continue. I hope people enjoy the story enough to read it, comment and even ask for more, so much that I find myself wanting to continue so that I can bring them more enjoyment. In the end, having someone read your story, enjoy it, and ask for more, is all a writer ever really wants.

* * *

** Update Notes **

_Most Recent Is First. Only contains changes made since uploading, not info on new chapter uploads._

_Reference this to see if something you may have already read has changed for any reason, after the fact._

**Aug 02/2020 12:40am EST**

  * Replaced all instances of Tachyon with Chroniton, as this fictional particle in star trek lore fits better with the canon I am pulling from.



**June 25/2020 5:30pm EST** :

  * Replaced all instances of the word 'Species' with the word 'Race' in the Prologue.



**June 22/2020 11:23am EST** :

  * Capitalized all the times PADD appeared in the story so far (was written as 'padd' before).



**June 20/2020 12pm EST :**

  * Added This Author Notes Chapter,
  * Fixed a few typos in the first six chapters (Thanks to my friend, 'Quizrat' for pointing them out to me).
  * Corrected an error where I said they were traveling at both warp four and warp six in the same scene (chapter 2). (Thanks to my friend, 'Quizrat' for pointing this out to me).
  * Changed and corrected the stardate in the second chapter, it was wrong by about a whole year. Story takes place at the very end of 2377, and not in 2378.




End file.
